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Search Senator Leahy’s press releases, floor statements, and Committee speeches by date or by subject.
Senate Floor Address Of Appropriations Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy On Day 33 Of The Trump Shutdown
For a month now, much of the federal government has been closed for business while the President of the United States rants and raves about his personal obsession, the centerpiece of his extreme, anti-immigration agenda - a wall on our Southern border. For a month now, hundreds of thousands of dedicated public servants have gone without a paycheck, even while many of them remained on the job. Many can no longer pay their bills. They are worried about how they will put food on the table. Ma… Continue Reading
01.23.19
'Pay Our Interns' Group Gives Leahy 'Congressional Intern Champion Award' For His Legislation Facilitating Paid Internships In The U.S. Senate
An organization of former interns that advocates for paying interns in congressional and federal offices has recognized Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) for achieving the long-sought goal of facilitating paid internships in the Senate. "Pay Our Interns" founders Carlos Mark Vera and Guillermo Creamer Jr. met with Leahy in his office to give him their Congressional Intern Champion Award. Leahy, the Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, recently secured the first-ever funding dedicated… Continue Reading
01.22.19
Scott And Leahy Announce New Leahy-Authored Grant Opportunity For Communities Impacted By Decline In Forestry Industry
Governor Phil Scott (R) and U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D) on Tuesday encouraged Vermont communities struggling to overcome the decline in the forestry industry to consider utilizing a new $7 million grant program to spur new economic opportunities. The NBRC (Northern Border Regional Commission) is seeking grant proposals through its newly launched Regional Forest Economy Partnership from governmental units and non-profit organizations across the four-state region from New York to Maine, includin… Continue Reading
01.19.19
REAX Of Senate Appropriations Vice Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) To The President's Saturday Address On His Proposed Border Wall
Today President Trump again resorted to blatant and provable falsehoods and to stoking fear of immigrants before outlining what he claims is a compromise. But this is no compromise. If anything, it is the result of 'negotiations' with his inner circle, not with the Congress, which has Constitutional authority over these decisions. Offering temporary protections for vulnerable immigrants, protections that he chose to strip in the first place, in exchange for a permanent, $5.7 billion dollar do… Continue Reading
01.18.19
Leahy, Sanders And Welch Join In Introducing 'Blue Card' Bill To Reform Broken Immigration Policies That Beset Dairy Farms And Farmworkers
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Representative Peter Welch (D-Vt.) have joined in introducing legislation to shield farmworkers from deportation and to open for them a path toward earned legal status and eventual citizenship. The bill was introduced Wednesday in both the Senate and the House. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, is the chief Senate sponsor, and Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) is the chief Ho… Continue Reading
01.17.19
Appropriations Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy On Day 26 Of The Trump Shutdown
For 26 days, President Trump has held funding for our federal government hostage - using it as leverage to force Congress to provide $5.7 billion to build his ill-conceived, expensive, and ineffective wall on the southern border. For months during the campaign, he riled up his base with chants of "Build The Wall! Build The Wall!" He invented a crisis at the southern border and then told his supporters that only HE could solve it. And he said over and over again, that Mexico would pay for it… Continue Reading
01.15.19
Delegation Statement On Kiah Morris
Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) issued the following statement on Tuesday. "Racism and white supremacy have no place in Vermont. Kiah Morris was an excellent representative for the people of Bennington on so many issues, and our state is worse off without her in office. We must root out racism in Vermont and ensure that no elected official, candidate or person fears for their safety because of the color of their skin or their point of view."… Continue Reading
01.15.19
Comment Of Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Senator Patrick Leahy On The U.S. District Court’s Ruling That Commerce Secretary Ross Violated Statute By Adding Census Question On Citizenship
I applaud the District Court decision, which affirms that Secretary Ross violated procedure in a politically motivated attempt to add an untested citizenship question, doing so extremely late in the census cycle. Secretary Ross also misled Congress - and misled me - claiming that the Justice Department was "the one" who initiated the request, when it began with the Secretary himself. The addition of this question would increase costs for an already over budget decennial census. Further, the q… Continue Reading
01.14.19
Floor Statement Of Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy On The 24th Day Of The Trump Shutdown
We have entered the 24th day of the Trump Shutdown. For twenty-four days, hundreds of thousands of federal workers have lived with the uncertainty of when they will get their next paycheck. And for twenty-four days, nine federal departments and dozens of agencies have been closed for business-withholding vital services to millions of Americans who paid taxes to support those services. It has now become the longest government shutdown in history. We are the most powerful country in the world… Continue Reading
01.11.19
Updated Impacts Of The Trump Shutdown
Updated Impacts Of The Trump Shutdown Prepared By Vice Chairman Leahy's Senate Appropriations Committee Staff More Than 450,000 Are Working Without Pay, Many Of Whom Are Veterans, Including: More than 41,000 Federal Law Enforcement and Correctional Officers Including: 2,614 ATF agents; 16,742 Bureau of Prisons correctional officers; 13,709 FBI agents; 3,600 deputy U.S. Marshals; and 4,399 DEA agents. 54,000 Customs and Border Protection agents and customs officers; 42,000 Coast Guard… Continue Reading
01.10.19
Floor Statement Of Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) On The 20th Day Of The Trump Shutdown
President Trump is right about one thing. Today, there is a crisis in America. But it is not fictitious hordes of illegal immigrants crashing against our southern border. That is nothing more than the imaginary invasion of a President obsessed with constructing a wasteful monument to himself. The obsession of a President who long before the Trump Shutdown began resorting to misinformation and stoking fear among the American people for political gain. There is a crisis in America, but it is… Continue Reading
01.09.19
Senate Floor Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy On The Impact Of The Government Shutdown On U.S. National Security And Global Leadership
Mr. LEAHY. It is now day 19 of the Trump Shutdown. Nineteen days that the federal government of the oldest democracy and the world's only superpower has been functioning on only half of its cylinders. I have spoken multiple times about the devastating impact this reckless and unnecessary shutdown is having on the federal workforce at domestic departments and agencies - departments like Homeland Security, Agriculture, Transportation, Justice, Interior, and Commerce. Agencies like Customs and… Continue Reading
01.08.19
REAX Of Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy To President Trump’s Primetime Address
President Trump has spent years as the host of a reality TV show, but unfortunately, reality has never been his strong suit. Even before the Trump Shutdown, the President resorted to misinformation and stoking fear among the American people in order to justify a wasteful monument to himself. His primetime address was simply fact-free fearmongering and data-distorting demagoguery. President Trump tried to make the case that there is crisis at our southern border that only a wall can solve. Bu… Continue Reading
01.08.19
BREAKING: Senate Appropriations Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) On The Trump Shutdown -- Day Eighteen
Today marks the eighteenth day of the Trump Shutdown. For more than two weeks now, the President has held the paychecks of over 800,000 Americans hostage in order to extort Congress into funding his border wall - a wall for which he promised the American taxpayers, over and over again, that Mexico would pay. For more than two weeks, the President has withheld vital government services to the American people in order to gain leverage to fulfill a divisive campaign promise and rally his base. S… Continue Reading
01.08.19
REAX Of Appropriations Vice Chair Senator Leahy (D-Vt.) To The Guatemalan Government's Termination Of The Mandate Of The International Commission Against Impunity In Guatemala (CICIG)
"Over the past year, President Morales repeatedly asserted his support for CICIG. Yet throughout this period he has sought to cripple CICIG by expelling its commissioner and intimidating its employees. He has done so despite rulings of the Constitutional Court upholding the independence and mandate of CICIG and its commissioner. "President Morales, and those who have participated in or supported this flagrant abuse of power, have made their choice. It is a choice of self-interest over … Continue Reading
01.04.19
REAX Of Appropriations Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy To President Trump’s Claim That The Military Can Build His Wall
The real national emergency is the President's senseless and costly shutdown. There is no national emergency on the southern border. Between 2000 and 2018, border apprehensions fell sharply from roughly 1.6 million in fiscal year 2000 to approximately 400,000 in fiscal year 2018 -- that's a 75 percent drop. The President stealing resources from the Defense Department for the construction of a wasteful border wall, at taxpayer expense, to defend against the President's imaginary invasion woul… Continue Reading
01.03.19
Senate Floor Address Of Appropriations Vice Chair Patrick Leahy, On Day 13 Of The Trump Shutdown
We are in the thirteenth day of the Trump Shutdown. Thirteen days that nine of fifteen federal departments and dozens of agencies have shut their doors. Thirteen days in which hundreds of thousands of Americans have been furloughed or are working without pay, and thirteen days that Americans have been denied government services on which they rely on and pay their taxes for. The President is holding federal government funding hostage in an attempt to force Congress to pay for an ineffective a… Continue Reading
01.03.19
UPDATED IMPACTS OF THE TRUMP SHUTDOWN
More Than 450,000 Are Working Without Pay, Many Of Whom Are Veterans, Including: More than 41,000 Federal Law Enforcement and Correctional Officers Including: 2,614 ATF agents; 16,742 Bureau of Prisons correctional officers; 13,709 FBI agents; 3,600 deputy U.S. Marshals; and 4,399 DEA agents. Up To 88 Percent Of Department of Homeland Security Employees, Including: 54,000 Customs and Border Protection agents and customs officers; 42,000 Coast Guard employees. 6,503 staff … Continue Reading
01.03.19
Senate Confirms Former Essex Police Chief Brad LaRose As Vermont’s U.S. Marshal
The U.S. Senate Wednesday night confirmed retired Essex Police Chief Brad LaRose as Vermont's next U.S. Marshal. He was unanimously confirmed with other noncontroversial nominees in the final hours of the just-expired congressional session. A new Congress begins on Thursday. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Governor Phil Scott (R) had jointly recommended LaRose to President Trump in January 2018 to fill the vacancy, and the President nominated him in June. The Senate Judiciary Committee app… Continue Reading
12.31.18
Statement Of Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy On House Democrats Introducing Legislation To Reopen the Government
There is one reason and one reason only that much of our federal government is shut down through the holidays and countless Americans are living with uncertainty - and that reason is President Trump. For 10 days he has held the federal government hostage in an attempt to force us to pay for an ineffective and expensive wall on the southern border, a wall he promised that Mexico would pay for. It will not work. He does not have the votes. Today, House Democrats introduced a commonsense path… Continue Reading
