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Search Senator Leahy’s press releases, floor statements, and Committee speeches by date or by subject.
Leahy Joins The Trust For Public Land In Huntington To Release Report On Community Forest And Open Space Benefits
HUNTINGTON, Vt. (TUESDAY, June 29, 2021) - Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Tuesday visited the Huntington Community Forest to coincide with the release of a special report, "Community Forests: A Path to Prosperity and Connection" by the Trust for Public Land. The property, immediately adjacent to the Brewster-Pierce Memorial School, is one of many forests in Vermont and across New England and the nation that offer community members and students the opportunity to learn, play, and connect with nat… Continue Reading
06.25.21
Wealthy Special Interests Kill Leahy-Grassley EB-5 Reform Bill To Boost Investment in Rural, Economically Challenged Communities
(FRIDAY, June 25, 2021) - Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Thursday condemned a blockade of their bipartisan bill to reform and extend the EB-5 investor visa program, which expires on June 30. The blockade was at the behest of a small group of wealthy real estate developers who reflexively oppose any efforts to improve accountability and transparency in the EB-5 … Continue Reading
06.24.21
Statement On The Increasing Urgency Of Bipartisan Negotiations On The Security Supplemental
It was 169 days ago that the world witnessed a violent insurrection take place in the seat of American democracy. The memory of rioters in combat gear, armed with zip ties, smashing in the windows of the Capitol Building is seared into the American consciousness. The images of the National Guard patrolling the Capitol grounds behind fences topped with barbed wire will fill the pages of text books on American history for generations. We did not budget for an insurrection, and the path of dest… Continue Reading
06.24.21
Leahy, Sanders, Welch: Vermont Receives $5.M. In Federal Grants To Support Lending, Investment And Business Recovery From The COVID-19 Pandemic
(THURSDAY, June 24, 2021) -- Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Representative Peter Welch (D-Vt.) announced on Thursday that six Vermont Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) are receiving Rapid Response Program funds authorized by the Fiscal Year 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act. The grants will provide capital needed for CDFIs to respond to economic challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in underserved communities. The Rap… Continue Reading
06.22.21
Leahy Today Holds Hearing Featuring Vermont’s Patent Troll Experience
(TUESDAY, June 22, 2021) - Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, on Tuesday will hold the panel's second hearing of this Congress, titled, "Protecting Real Innovations by Improving Patent Quality." The hearing will feature testimony from Bridget Asay, an attorney who represented the State of Vermont against a patent troll that threatened dozens of small Vermont businesses and nonprofits in 2013 with infringement claims on a patent t… Continue Reading
06.21.21
Leahy Calls For Bipartisan Negotiations On Security Supplemental
(Monday, June 21, 2021) - Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Monday called on Senate Republicans to join bipartisan negotiations on the Security Supplemental to address the fallout from the January 6 insurrection. It has been 166 days since the January 6 attack, and 32 days since the House passed an emergency supplemental. Without Senate action, the Capitol Police will run out of funding sometime in August. And without Senate action, the National Guard, which provid… Continue Reading
06.21.21
Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy, Chair, Intellectual Property Subcommittee, On The Supreme Court’s Decision In Arthrex
Ten years ago, Congress enacted the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, which gave the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) the necessary authority to curb the abuse of poor-quality patents. Patents are one of the core engines of our American economy. High-quality patents are essential to American innovation, creating jobs and boosting economic output, while poor-quality patents have the opposite effect, depriving Americans of new inventions and miring small businesses in needless litigation. Th… Continue Reading
06.18.21
Leahy Secures And Announces $11 Million To Support The Food Systems Research Center At UVM
BURLINGTON, Vt. (FRIDAY, June 18, 2021) - Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Friday joined University of Vermont (UVM) leaders to announce federal funding for the Food Systems Research Center. Leahy, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, secured $11 million in 2021 to support the Center's work researching all facets of the regional food system, from production agriculture to food security. Leahy said: "When the pandemic struck, Vermonters turned to their local farms for food security… Continue Reading
06.15.21
Advocating For Vermont Dairy Farmers, Leahy Asks Agriculture Secretary Vilsack When USDA Will Release Funds Allocated For Pandemic Relief To Dairy Farmers
** NEWS ALERT ** NEWS EDITORS: ** VIDEO LINK BELOW ** This morning (TUESDAY), Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, asked U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack about delivering urgently needed relief to Vermont's dairy farmers. Leahy asked Vilsack at a hearing by the Appropriations Committee's Agriculture Subcommittee to review the President's budget request. Dairy producers in Vermont and throughout the Northeast continue to face market volatility a… Continue Reading
06.15.21
Statement Of Chairman Leahy On The GAO Decision On The Pause Of Border Barrier Construction Obligations
Today's announcement by the GAO is a welcome one. As the ruling made clear, a review of the environmental havoc wrought by former President Trump's vanity wall, and taking the time to actually consult with the various stake holders, including landowners whose land was being seized, is legal and permitted by law. President Trump's approach to the wall at the Southern Border was at best a bumper sticker approach to a serious policy issue, and it should be reviewed to ensure that American taxpaye… Continue Reading
06.14.21
Statement Of Senator Leahy Unofficial Preliminary Transcript Vermont Marks A COVID Vaccination Milestone
Madam president, we had interesting news in Vermont this morning. Our governor, Governor Scott, announced that we've reached 80% immunity - vaccinations - so the state will in effect reopen. Now, I mention this because right from the beginning, and I've worked closely with our governor, we tried to show no partisanship in this. I'm a Democrat. He's a Republican. We are both first and foremost Vermonters. And restrictions were put in place. Efforts were made to vaccinate. I know my wife, Marcell… Continue Reading
06.11.21
Risch, Leahy, Colleagues: Biden Should Support Nicaraguan People’s Efforts To Restore Democratic Governance In Nicaragua
(FRIDAY, June 11, 2021) - U.S. Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), President Pro Tempore of the Senate, yesterday led Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Majority Whip, Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), ranking member of the subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Todd Young (R-Ind.), and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) in sending a letter to President Biden encouraging the administration to hold the Ortega-Murillo regime … Continue Reading
06.10.21
Leahy And Boozman Introduce Bipartisan Bill To Make Summer Meal Programs More Flexible
(THURSDAY, June 10, 2021) -- A bipartisan group of senators led by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Senator John Boozman (R-AR) are proposing to apply lessons learned from the pandemic to existing child nutrition programs to make them more efficient, flexible and better equipped to reach children in need during the summer months. Leahy and Boozman Thursday introduced the Hunger-Free Summer for Kids Act to add flexibility to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Summer Food Service Progra… Continue Reading
06.09.21
NEWS EDITORS: Video Clips On VT Topics In Today’s Approps Hg W/EPA Adm. Regan: Leahy Discusses 1) Biden Reversing Trump Policy By Asking For LAKE CHAMPLAIN $; 2) BURLINGTON HIGH SCHOOL PCB Pollution
In today's Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on EPA's budget for Fiscal Year 2022, Chairman Patrick Leahy discussed two current topics important to Vermont. Leahy raised two current EPA issues affecting Vermont in today's hearing with EPA's new Administrator, Michael Regan. VIDEO CLIPS of Leahy's exchanges with Administrator Regan about Lake Champlain funding and about the closure of Burlington High School because of the discovery of high levels of PCBs are available at the LINKS BELOW. … Continue Reading
06.09.21
Leahy Praises Passage Of Bipartisan U.S. Innovation And Competition Act And Funding For Domestic Semiconductor Production
(WEDNESDAY, June 9, 2021) -- Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is hailing Senate passage Tuesday night of a bipartisan bill to fund the CHIPS Act, passed as part of last summer's annual defense policy bill, and to authorize a wide-range of federal investments in research and development in order to make the United States more competitive in the global economy of the 21st Century. Leahy, who chairs the Appropriations Committee, said: "In a bipartisan vote, the Senate advanced important legislation … Continue Reading
06.08.21
Vermont Delegation Sends Letter Urging Biden Administration to Immediately Work with Canada to Safely Open the Northern Border
Senators Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders, and Representative Peter Welch sent a letter to the Biden administration late Monday urging him to work with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to allow additional travel between the United States and Canada. With increased vaccination rates in both the United States and Canada, and updated CDC guidance for fully vaccinated Americans, the delegation urged the Biden administration to work with Canada to add additional essential traveler classes and to continu… Continue Reading
06.05.21
Statement On The Situation In Tigray, Ethiopia
I vividly recall the shocking images back in 1984 of a million emaciated Ethiopian men, women and children, many of them from Tigray, who had fled the country in the midst of a massive famine caused by prolonged drought, widespread food shortages, and discriminatory government policies. Eventually the rains returned and the refugees went home, but the country has been plagued by periods of conflict and food insecurity ever since. Today, the people of Tigray are being subjected to human rights… Continue Reading
06.04.21
As VP Travels To Mexico And Central America, Leading Senate Democrats Boost Diplomatic Efforts To Address Causes Of Irregular Migration, Foster Stability In Central America
U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today led a group of 18 of his Senate colleagues in voicing their support for Vice President Kamala Harris' leadership of the Biden administration's diplomatic efforts to address and mitigate the underlying factors driving Central American migration to the United States. Sent in advance of Vice President Harris' upcoming visit to Mexico and Guatemala, the senators' letter reiterates their call for the develop… Continue Reading
05.27.21
Statement On The Introduction Of The Biden Budget And The End Of The Budget Control Act
The Budget Control Act of 2011 expires this year, and that is a good thing. This law led to a decade of underfunding our domestic priorities, from which it will take years to recover. Right now, in communities across the country, our infrastructure is crumbling, millions of Americans cannot access federal programs for which they qualify, and we are falling behind in investing in science, research, and development on the global economic stage. All of this because the Budget Control Act set ar… Continue Reading
05.27.21
Statement On Senate Passage Of The United States Innovation And Competition Act Of 2021
Today, in a bipartisan vote, the Senate advanced important legislation to increase our nation's competitiveness with China. The United States Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) of 2021 is significant legislation, and an example of what process and debate can yield in the United States Senate. This legislative package is the end result of the bipartisan work of from multiple Senate Committees and reflects the urgency of addressing the challenges faced by domestic manufacturers and American r… Continue Reading
