The federal courts play a pivotal role, and often serve as a last resort, in protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Coloradans, which we saw this year when the freedom to marry was afforded to same-sex couples across the country. When courts are backlogged, it causes real harm to citizens — including LGBT citizens — and businesses that cannot get timely justice or resolution of disputes.

Our U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado only has seven judges to handle all civil and criminal trial-level matters for the entire state. Those few judges are overworked and understaffed because Congress has not increased the number of judges since 1984 — despite the fact our population has grown immensely since then. Chief Judge Marcia Krieger has been warning for years that the increasing number of cases overburdens the court and causes months and years of delay for everyday Coloradans.

In a refreshing moment of bipartisan unity, the entire Colorado congressional delegation — all seven members of the House and both U.S. senators — support legislation introduced this summer to add two new judgeships to the District Court for Colorado. It is time for this long-overdue bill to pass through Congress but, even if it passed tomorrow, the bill itself says it will not take effect until January 2017.

The District Court’s caseload backlog problem will only get worse if one of the current seats is left vacant in April.

U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn has announced that he will be taking senior status (basically, retiring to part-time status) effective April 12, 2016. That means the number of full-time judges on our District Court will drop to six unless a new federal judge gets through the vetting, nomination and confirmation process in the next seven months.

Before the president officially nominates someone for a federal court seat, he waits to receive a suggested list of nominees from the home-state senators, which means the ball is officially in Sen. Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner’s court, and the clock is ticking.

Selecting a lifetime-tenure federal judge for Colorado should be an open, bipartisan, and transparent process. While there are no specific requirements in law, it is good for our democracy when the decisions made in federal courts are not left to personal golfing buddies or a system of political favors. The last two vacancies on the District Court in Colorado were filled using a bipartisan screening committee, where both of Colorado’s senators worked jointly, which led to the President nominating qualified candidates who were confirmed by the Senate without any opposition votes. In addition to excellent legal qualifications, a diverse federal bench improves the quality of justice for Colorado’s citizens. The number of openly gay or lesbian federal judges has increased from one to 12 in the last six years. However, the Colorado District Court has never had an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender judge. This vacancy provides an opportunity for our senators to select candidates who reflect the diversity of our state.

It is concerning that Sens. Gardner and Bennet have each created separate screening committees that do not appear to be planning to work together. Neither committee has stated that the senators are planning to send a joint list to the president. Earlier this month, members of our organization joined almost 800 Coloradans from across the state urging the senators to work together to fill this seat before April.

It’s important that we have fair and diverse judges on the bench of the District Court who will resolve cases in a timely manner, uphold the Constitution, and protect LGBT Coloradans and their families. Hopefully, our U.S. senators can put partisanship aside and support our overworked federal court.

Dave Montez is executive director of One Colorado Education Fund.