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Search Senator Leahy’s press releases, floor statements, and Committee speeches by date or by subject.
Senate Address Of Senator Leahy On The Senate's Immigration Debate, And The Dreamers
As the Senate debates the fate of our Nation's Dreamers this week, an uncontestable truth underpins our discussion: We are a Nation of immigrants. Unless you are Native American, you come from a line of people who come from somewhere else. More than in any country on Earth, this simple fact is a defining characteristic of our national identity. Throughout our history immigrant communities have greatly enriched our Nation; their individual stories have become the American story. Out of many,… Continue Reading
02.12.18
Leahy Reaction To The Trump Budget Proposals For The State Department And Foreign Operations
The State Department and USAID budget request for FY19 is a repeat of the simplistic, formulistic approach that was widely repudiated by Congress and the diplomatic and development community in FY18. Once again there is no fiscal, strategic, or pragmatic justification for these arbitrary cuts. They were made without any credible analysis of their impact or whether they are in our national interest. It is divorced from America's real-world security interests, and it would continue the Trump Ad… Continue Reading
02.12.18
Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy On President Trump’s Budget Proposal And Infrastructure Plan
A budget is where we lay out our priorities as a nation. The priorities identified in this budget are not the priorities of the American people. By making drastic cuts to our domestic priorities, President Trump is abandoning the bipartisan budget deal reached by Congress and signed -- by the President -- last week. This is not a serious proposal; it is divorced from reality. And it would continue the Trump administration's full-on retreat from American global influence and leadership. Fu… Continue Reading
02.09.18
Graham, Durbin, Cruz, Cardin And Leahy Introduce Cambodia Accountability And Return On Investment Act
Graham, Durbin, Cruz, Cardin and Leahy Introduce Cambodia Accountability and Return on Investment Act WASHINGTON (FRIDAY, Feb. 9, 2018) - U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) introduced the Cambodia Accountability and Return on Investment (CARI) Act of 2018. The CARI Act restricts assistance to the Cambodian government due to actions taken as it relates to regional security, enforcem… Continue Reading
02.09.18
Leahy Outlines Vermont Priorities In Budget Deal That Passed Congress And Was Signed Into Law This Morning
Leahy Outlines Vermont Priorities In Bipartisan Budget Deal …Leahy, As Vice Chairman Of The Senate Appropriations Committee, Played Key Role In Negotiations WASHINGTON (FRIDAY, Feb. 9, 2018) - The Senate and the House early Friday morning passed a bipartisan budget agreement to keep the federal government open, strengthen the military and invest in priorities here at home. President Trump signed the bill upon receiving it Friday morning. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), as Vice Chairman of… Continue Reading
02.09.18
Statement On The Passing Of Tony Pomerleau
Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy On The Passing Of Tony Pomerleau Marcelle introduced me to her Uncle Tony nearly sixty years ago when I was a young college student. Within a very short time, he was making me feel like a member of the family, and he became Uncle Tony to me also. Our children, and then our grandchildren, always saw him as Uncle Tony when we would visit him and his wife, Rita. During the past few days Marcelle and I, and the children and grandchildren, have talked about Tony,… Continue Reading
02.08.18
Senate Floor Statement Of Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Leahy On The Bipartisan Budget Deal
The consequences of the Budget Control Act sequestration cuts since 2011 have been devastating and will last for generations. Its impact on military readiness led Defense Secretary Mattis to say that no enemy on the field has done more to harm our military than what we have done ourselves through sequestration. By not investing in our domestic priorities, we allowed our infrastructure to crumble, care to our veterans to be delayed, and investments in education to fall behind. The bipartisan b… Continue Reading
02.08.18
Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy REAX To The Bipartisan Budget Deal
The consequences of the Budget Control Act sequestration cuts since 2011 have been devastating and will last a generation. Its impact on military readiness led Defense Secretary Mattis to say that no enemy on the field has done more to harm our military than sequestration. By not investing in our domestic priorities, we allowed our infrastructure to crumble, care to our veterans to be delayed, and investments in education to fall behind. This bipartisan budget deal is the first step toward pr… Continue Reading
02.08.18
BREAKING: Leahy Secures Key Safety Net Changes For Dairy Farmers In Budget Deal
U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy announced Thursday that he has secured significant improvements to a key dairy safety net program, which are to be included in a bipartisan budget deal package to be considered by Congress this week. Leahy is the Vice Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and has been working with the panel's Chairman, Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), to address the needs of dairy and cotton farmers struggling with low prices. Leahy also is a leading member of the Senate Agriculture… Continue Reading
02.07.18
Leahy And Other Senators Question Secretary Mattis On Cost to Taxpayers of President Trump’s Military Parade
Senator Patrick Leahy on Wednesday -- with Senators Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) -- sent a letter to Department of Defense Secretary James Mattis to explain the impact of President Trump's directive to conduct a military parade in Washington, D.C, on American taxpayers. "At a time of war, with American servicemembers serving in harm's way, such a parade seems to be inappropriate and wasteful," the senators wrote. "Every penny of the millions of dollars tha… Continue Reading
02.05.18
Leahy Statement On The Release Of The Nunes Memo
Last Friday, Devin Nunes, the House Intelligence Committee Chairman, received approval from President Trump to release a classified memo that purports to show that a FISA application to conduct surveillance of a Trump campaign aide was politically motivated. Over the weekend, the President, speaking in the third person, told us that this memo "totally vindicates 'Trump'" in the Russia investigation. Following a pattern that has become all too familiar, the President also viciously attacked the… Continue Reading
02.02.18
BREAKING: Comment Of Senator Patrick Leahy On The Release Of The Nunes Memo
For years I have been leading calls in the Senate to protect our civil liberties and reform our surveillance authorities under FISA. The President and House Republicans' decision to release the Nunes memo has absolutely nothing to do with what is wrong with FISA - including unrelated provisions that allow for warrantless surveillance of Americans. Nor does this poisoned, partisan memo have anything to do with serious oversight of FISA authorities more broadly. The memo deliberately omits key … Continue Reading
02.01.18
Leahy And Other Democratic Senators Urge President To Prioritize Rural Broadband
As the Administration prepares a broad infrastructure plan, 23 million Americans living in rural areas across the country still lack access to high-speed broadband. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) joined a letter penned by U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn) to President Trump urging him to include funding to support broadband deployment in unserved rural areas across the country. Leahy is the Vice Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. "In an increasingly inter… Continue Reading
01.31.18
Comment Of Sen. Patrick Leahy On President’s Exec. Order To Keep GTMO Open
"For nearly two decades, Guantanamo Bay has been a stain on our American system of justice. From indefinite detentions without charges, to allegations of detainee mistreatment, to reports of government surveillance of confidential attorney-client communications, Guantanamo Bay has proven to be a Kafkaesque mockery of the rule of law. I oppose any attempts, including this executive order, to keep this irreparably flawed system open for business. And I am not alone. More than 50 retired generals, … Continue Reading
01.31.18
The #BudgetTruthSquad Fact Checks President Trump’s State Of The Union
Infrastructure: "I am asking both parties to come together to give us the safe, fast, reliable, and modern infrastructure our economy needs and our people deserve….Together, we can reclaim our building heritage. We will build gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways, and waterways across our land. And we will do it with American heart, American hands, and American grit." · One year after the President took office, he still has not sent Congress a detailed proposal f… Continue Reading
01.30.18
Reaction Of Senator Patrick Leahy To The President’s State Of The Union Message
Under this President, the State of our Union is suddenly tenuous, in many ways. President Trump can say he's for uniting instead of dividing the nation. He's said it before. But after a year of intensely divisive actions, petty insults and disgraceful race-baiting, those words ring hollow by now. Nor does doubling down on his broken promises to help struggling Americans sound as convincing as it once might have. The tens of billions of dollars that he wants taxpayers - not Mexico, as he p… Continue Reading
01.30.18
Statement Of Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) On The Need For A Bipartisan Agreement
The Fiscal Year began on October 1st of last year. Four months have passed-122 days-since the start of the Fiscal Year, and we still do not have a budget deal that will allow us to finish the FY 2018 Appropriations bills. Recently, President Trump has taken to Twitter accusing Democrats of holding up funding for our troops. The idea that Democrats are holding up defense spending does not pass the laugh test. Last July-nearly seven months ago-I called for bipartisan budget negotiations. I pu… Continue Reading
01.25.18
Leahy REAX To Trump Administration’s Imposition Of A Tariff That Will Punish U.S. Solar Energy Businesses & Workers
"This is a cynical, rash and shortsighted unilateral action. It will damage America's clean energy future, in Vermont and across the nation. Incredibly, the Trump Administration wants to hand new taxpayer subsidies to coal and nuclear, while slapping on new taxes - these tariffs - that hurt the thriving U.S. businesses that are installing solar equipment. They seemingly don't care about how this will hurt U.S. jobs in our domestic solar installation market. This could especially do real dama… Continue Reading
01.24.18
Leahy Committee Statement On The Nomination Of Michael Brennan to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals
As the longest-serving member of the Senate and a former chairman of this Committee, I feel obligated to speak up about the steady erosion of this body's norms and traditions. Lately, unfortunately, I have had to speak up a lot. Once again, I am concerned that the blue slip tradition that Chairman Grassley steadfastly adhered to during the Obama administration is being further tarnished today. This is not a matter of a chairman choosing a blue slip policy that differs from my own. It is a m… Continue Reading
01.22.18
Comment Of Appropriations Vice Chair Patrick Leahy On His ‘No’ Vote On Cloture On The GOP Stop-Gap Spending Bill
"I'm relieved there is an end in sight to this Trump Shutdown. But Republican leaders and President Trump have left too much undone - from a bipartisan budget deal, to disaster relief, to community health centers, to the opioid crisis, to DACA. There are many pressing and unfinished priorities, and I cannot give my support to yet another short-term, stopgap measure that, yet again, keeps budget priorities on autopilot, without the ability to adjust for changing priorities since these budget le… Continue Reading
