Patrick Leahy: “earlier today the President visited Capitol Hill for a closed-door meeting with House Republicans. It is not often the…”

“earlier today the President visited Capitol Hill for a closed-door meeting with House Republicans. It is not often the President takes time out of his busy schedule to come to Congress. But to meet only with Republicans is wrong and divisive. After his closed door meeting, the President talked about working together, in a bipartisan way. His walk does not match his talk. I wish he would act as a uniter and work with all of us on behalf of all Americans. Regrettably, it appears that, once again, this President has chosen to act in a partisan way in his role as Republican-in-Chief. That is wrong. I hope that all Senators will recognize their responsibility to all Americans and exercise their best independent judgment, rather than taking orders from the head of their political party. In the Judiciary Committee yesterday, Senators did exercise that kind of independent judgment when we joined together in a bipartisan way to report a bipartisan bill that would amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and reign in the Administration's warrantless domestic wiretapping program. That bill, S. 3001, the bill cosponsored by Senator Specter and Senator Feinstein, was the only proposal that drew bipartisan support. I urge the Majority Leader to recognize the merits of that bill and our bipartisan efforts by moving to proceed to that bill when the Senate turns its attention to these matters.…”