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Press Releases
Search Senator Leahy’s press releases, floor statements, and Committee speeches by date or by subject.
Leahy Statement On The Tax Cuts And Jobs Act
During Thanksgiving last week, families across the country came together to give thanks for the blessings of the past year. One group in particular - corporate CEOs - had a special reason to be thankful: the Republican tax bill we are considering today. Rather than engaging in a bipartisan process to develop and enact meaningful tax reform that will benefit working Americans and small businesses, Republicans in Congress have spent the last few weeks crafting tax cut legislation that will overw… Continue Reading
11.29.17
Leahy Announces $1.3 Million Grant To Help The Vermont State Police Combat The Opioid Epidemic
Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Wednesday announced a grant of more than $1.3 million for the Vermont State Police (VSP) to continue its aggressive work fighting the opioid epidemic in Vermont. This was the second-largest of only eight grants awarded nationwide through the highly competitive COPS Anti-Heroin Task Force (AHTF) grant program that Leahy created in the fiscal year 2015 Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) appropriations bill. In his new role as … Continue Reading
11.21.17
Durbin, Leahy Statement on FY18 Defense Appropriations Chairman's Mark
U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), vice chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, and U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, vice chairman of the Appropriations Committee, released the following statement on the release of the Fiscal Year 2018 Defense Appropriations Act. The bill exceeds President Trump's request by $15.3 billion, and exceeds the sequestration caps by $70 billion. This is a step forward, though we remain deeply concerned about the process. So before anyone cheers t… Continue Reading
11.21.17
Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Leahy Calls On Congress For Bipartisan Budget Deal
Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy Tuesday renewed his call for a bipartisan budget deal that would allow for real investments in the American people. Leahy said: "With just 17 days until the current continuing resolution expires and the threat of sequestration looming in January, our toughest path remains ahead. We must come together to reach a bipartisan budget deal that allows for an increase in both defense AND non-defense spending to alleviate the devastating cons… Continue Reading
11.21.17
Leahy Slams Border Wall Funding As “Bumper Sticker Budgeting”
Slamming the proposal as "bumper sticker budgeting," Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Tuesday focused on a provision in the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill that would provide $1.6 billion from American taxpayers for President Trump's border wall with Mexico. Leahy said: "This is bumper sticker budgeting to save face for one of President Trump's failed campaign promises. Instead of wasting billions of taxpayer dollars to fund this costly … Continue Reading
11.21.17
Appropriations Vice Chair Leahy’s SUMMARY of/REAX To Chairman’s Mark For The FY2018 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill
The Senate Appropriations Committee Tuesday made public the Chairman's Mark of the fiscal year 2018 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill. The bill provides a total discretionary appropriation of $51.565 billion. The net discretionary total is $44.050 billion after the following amounts are excluded: $559 million in emergency appropriations for disaster relief; cap adjustment funding of $6.793 billion for disaster relief; and $163 million for Overseas Contingency Operations. … Continue Reading
11.21.17
Sen. Leahy, Sen. Cardin And Others Send Letter To Mnuchin On SEC Oil, Gas, Mining Transparency Rule
U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, led 14 of his colleagues Tuesday, including Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, urging him to withdraw the Department's recent recommendation that a key extractive industry transparency provision be completely repealed by Congress. Earlier this year, Congressional Republicans halted the Securities and Exchange Commission's implementation of the rule but left the… Continue Reading
11.21.17
Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) On Federal Judge’s Nationwide Injunction Blocking Trump Executive Order On “Sanctuary Jurisdictions”
[Last week the U.S. Department of Justice notified 29 jurisdictions, including the State of Vermont and the City of Burlington, of its plans to withhold federal funding based on claims that their policing policies violated federal law with respect to immigration enforcement. Both Vermont jurisdictions have steadfastly denied the DOJ claims, which threatened more than $500,000 in Byrne JAG funding to Vermont law enforcement agencies. Following is Senator Patrick Leahy's reaction to the court's n… Continue Reading
11.21.17
Reaction of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) To Apple’s Response To The Letter From Senator Cruz And Senator Leahy
"American tech companies have become leading champions of free expression. But that commitment should not end at our borders. Global leaders in innovation, like Apple, have both an opportunity and a moral obligation to promote free expression and other basic human rights in countries that routinely deny these rights. Apple is clearly a force for good in China, but I also believe it and other tech companies must continue to push back on Chinese suppression of free expression." LINK to Apple's… Continue Reading
11.20.17
Leahy Notches Key Victories For Lake Champlain And Vermont In Appropriations Bill
Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy Monday announced several key victories for programs that support Lake Champlain, conservation initiatives, and historic downtowns across Vermont. The programs were funded through the Appropriations Committee bill on the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies, for Fiscal Year 2018, which was released on Monday afternoon. The bill will now be negotiated to reconcile differences between the Senate and House bills prior to being consi… Continue Reading
11.20.17
Appropriations Vice Chair Leahy’s Summary Of Chairman’s Mark Of FY2018 Financial Services & Gen’l. Govt. Appropriations Bill
Today the Senate Appropriations Committee made public the Chairman's Mark of the fiscal year 2018 Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) Appropriations bill. The bill provides a total of $21.035 billion, including $159 million in disaster funds. This funding level is $480 million less than the fiscal year 2017 enacted level and nearly $2 billion less than the fiscal year 2018 President's request. U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), Ranking Member of the Financial Services and Genera… Continue Reading
11.20.17
Appropriations Vice Chair Leahy’s Summary Of Chairman’s Mark Of The FY2018 Interior, Environment Appropriations Bill
The Senate Appropriations Committee Monday made public the Chairman's Mark for the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Fiscal Year 2018 Appropriations Bill. The Senate bill recommends $32.536 billion in discretionary funding for agencies funded by the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies bill, which includes $32.030 billion in discretionary funds and $507 million in emergency funds to pay for wildland firefighting needs. Excluding emergency funding, the amount provided is $250 … Continue Reading
11.20.17
Federal Grants Totaling Nearly $600,000 To Help 5 VT Communities Hire New Officers (COPS Grants)
Senator Patrick Leahy Monday announced that five rural Vermont law enforcement agencies will receive a total of nearly $600,000 to help hire new officers through the Department of Justice COPS Hiring Program. The program covers a large portion of the costs that communities face when adding officers to their ranks, thereby supporting the goals of community policing. "These funds are critical to small law enforcement agencies that would otherwise find it too costly to bring a new officer on board… Continue Reading
11.17.17
Senator Lee And Senator Leahy Introduce The USA Liberty Act In The Senate
Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Senator Patrick Leahy have jointly introduced the Uniting and Strengthening American Liberty Act (USA Liberty Act) of 2017 in the United States Senate. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act will expire on December 31, 2017. This legislation would reauthorize Section 702 while making key privacy improvements. Section 702 allows the government to collect sweeping amounts of Internet and other communications, including conte… Continue Reading
11.17.17
Appropriations Vice Chairman Leahy's REAX To Trump Adm.'s 3rd Emergency Supplemental Request
[Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Friday issued the following statement on the Trump Administration's emergency supplemental request, totaling $44 billion, to address recent natural disasters. Earlier this month, Leahy and Senator Schumer led a letter outlining what Senate Democrats believe should be contained in the supplemental request.] The Trump Administration's request does not come close to meeting the needs of victims of recent natural disasters in Tex… Continue Reading
11.17.17
Senate Unanimously Passes Grassley-Leahy Bill to Protect Whistleblowers in Criminal Antitrust Cases
The U.S. Senate Wednesday night unanimously passed the Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act to extend whistleblower protection for employees who provide information to the Department of Justice related to criminal antitrust violations. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), coauthors of the legislation, hailed the Senate's quick action on their bipartisan measure. Approval of the bill comes just one month after the Judiciary Committee unanimously reported it to the full… Continue Reading
11.16.17
Reaction Of Appropriations Vice Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) To The House-Passed Tax Bill
The House has passed a hodge-podge collection of broken promises to middle class Americans. Republican leaders and President Trump promised to close loopholes for large corporations and the wealthiest Americans to pay for lowering their tax rates. Instead, their tax rates would be cut, and the loopholes remain, meaning even lower effective tax rates for the wealthy, while exploding the federal debt. Vermonters would pay more by losing deductions for state and local taxes, by losing deductio… Continue Reading
11.16.17
Leahy Statement On The National Defense Authorization Act Conference Report
The Fiscal Year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, while laudable in its goals, does not comport with reality. At roughly $700 billion, the proposed base funding in this bill is $85 billion above budget caps that are set in law for fiscal year 2018 in the Budget Control Act (BCA), and $31 billion above the administration's budget request. If the authorized funding level were to be appropriated, without changing the caps, it would trigger a 12 percent across-the-board sequester of defense… Continue Reading
11.15.17
Leahy Slams Attorney General Sessions For Threatening Public Safety Funding To Burlington And The State Of Vermont, Over The Trump Administration’s Misguided Anti-Immigrant Policies
[(WEDNESDAY, Nov. 15, 2017) - This afternoon (Wednesday), Attorney General Jeff Sessions' Justice Department notified the State of Vermont and the City of Burlington that the Department believes they have laws, policies or practices that violate 8 U.S.C. 1373, a federal statute that promotes information-sharing related to immigration enforcement. In all, the Department cited 29 jurisdictions, sometimes derided as "sanctuary cities," that are being threatened with the withholding of funds. Spec… Continue Reading
11.15.17
Appropriations Vice Chairman Leahy Statement At Hearing On VA Efforts To Prevent And Combat Opioid Over Medication
The opioid epidemic has reached every state - every community - in the country. It is impacting sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, friends and coworkers. And it is impacting our veterans and servicemembers. We have for over 16 years of war asked members of the active and reserve components to serve an unprecedented numbers of deployments, leaving too many veterans broken and in pain. When we needed these brave men and women to return to battle, it was too easy to prescribe opioids for … Continue Reading
