After more than a year, Judge Luis Felipe Restrepo will finally have his confirmation hearing.

Restrepo will face a vote by the full Senate on Jan. 11th to confirm his place on the Third Circuit of the U.S. Appeals Court.

The current federal district court judge’s confirmation process has dragged on, after being nominated for the seat by Pres. Obama in November 2014. Restrepo was last in front of the Senate in June when he faced a short round of questioning from three Senators.

Many have cried foul on Restrepo’s long wait for confirmation – pointing to it as part of an effort to delay the president’s nominations – including the New York Times, which featured the Philadelphia-based judge’s plight in an editorial last month.

It took less than six months the first time Restrepo went through the Senate confirmation process. He was nominated to serve in his current seat by Pres. Obama on Jan. 2, 2013 and was confirmed before the end of June.

A six-month wait on Sen. Pat Toomey’s written support for Restrepo this time around certainly didn’t speed the process up, though Toomey insisted he was waiting for the Senate Judiciary Committee to complete its background checks on Restrepo.

Toomey turned in his “blue slip” as soon as the committee cleared Restrepo although the Judge was already vetted before his unanimous confirmation to the District Court for the Eastern District of PA just two years before.

“If [Restrepo] is confirmed, this achievement would further build on an exceptionally strong record of accomplishment that Sen. Casey and I have for securing federal judges for Pennsylvania,” Toomey said in a statement Wednesday.

There are currently three federal judicial vacancies in PA and 65 across the nation – including 30 emergency vacancies. If confirmed, Restrepo will fill one of those vacancies, but will also create one at the district court level. Restrepo would be just the 12th judge to be confirmed this year.