Texas senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn have recommended to President Bush that he nominate McAllen, Texas attorney Micaela Alvarez to the U.S. Senate to fill the federal district judgeship for the Southern District of Texas, Laredo Division, that will become vacant later this year when present Judge Keith Ellison transfers to the Houston Division. When he was Governor of Texas, President Bush appointed Ms. Alvarez in 1995 to a state district judgeship in Hildalgo County, but she was subsequently defeated in the 1996 election (Hildalgo County is in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, which is predominantly Democrat). Ms. Alvarez is a 1980 graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and a 1989 graduate of the University of Texas Law School. Between undergraduate school and law school, Ms. Alvarez worked as a social worker, and she has been in private practice in McAllen since 1996.