The Senate voted to confirm Houston federal prosecutor’s Gregg Costa to the federal bench Thursday, coming a month after lawmakers struck a deal to end a confirmation logjam.

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Gregg Costa

Costa, an Assistant U.S. Attorney, was confirmed ^[2] as a district judge in the Southern District of Texas by a vote of 97-2. Recently, Costa has been widely praised ^[3] for his work securing a win for the Justice Department in the high-profile financial fraud trial of R. Allen Stanford.

Costa was nominated Sept. 9 and received the highest judicial rating — unanimously well qualified — from the American Bar Association. He also has the support of the two Texas Republican senators, Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved his nomination in December, but a vote before the full Senate was delayed.

A deal ^[4] to move nominations was brokered last month, came after Majority Leader Harry Reid threatened to force full roll call votes on 17 stalled nominees, which would have effectively brought the Senate to a standstill.

Costa joined the U.S. Attorney’s office in 2005. Before that, he worked in private practice in Houston and as a Bristow Fellow ^[5] in the Office of the Solicitor General at the Justice Department. He also clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist on the U.S. Supreme Court.