US Presidency
1977

We must explore every reasonable prospect for meeting our energy needs when our current domestic reserves of oil and natural gas begin to dwindle in the next decade. I urgently ask Congress and the new administration to move quickly on these issues. This nation has the resources and the capability to achieve our energy goals if its government has the will to proceed, and I think we do. I have been disappointed by inability to complete many of the meaningful organizational reforms which I contemplated for the federal government, although a start has been made. For example, the federal judicial system has long served as a modal for other courts. But today it is threatened by a shortage of qualified federal judges and an explosion of litigation claiming federal jurisdiction. I commend to the new administration and the Congress the recent report and recommendations of the Department of Justice, undertaken at my request, on the needs of the federal courts. I especially endorse its proposals for a new commission on the judicial appointment process.