House approves measure to add two federal judges in Nevada

Thursday, June 17, 1999 | 4:07 a.m.

The amendment sponsored by Nevada Rep. Jim Gibbons and Florida colleagues Bill McCollum and Porter Goss passed Wednesday night as part of a larger bill dealing with juvenile violence.

Nevada has four federal district court judges in addition to two senior judges who handled limited caseloads.

"Nevada's current caseload of 863 cases per active judge ranks second in the nation," Gibbons said. "The courts are buried by overwhelming caseloads and mountains of paperwork."

The last expansion of the federal judiciary in Nevada was 15 years ago. Since then, the state's population has more than doubled.

The amendment would also add four federal judges in Florida and three in Arizona.

The measure has already been approved in the Senate, though the House and Senate still have to resolve differences in the main portion of the bill.

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