Patrick Leahy: “I regret that the President and the Republican leadership in the Senate continue to choose division over cooperation and…”

“I regret that the President and the Republican leadership in the Senate continue to choose division over cooperation and confrontation over consensus on the Presidents' most controversial judicial nominees. Senators can work together, Republicans and Democrats. The conflict we are experiencing on the Senate floor, which has the collateral consequence of disrupting important and unfinished work of the Senate, is by Republican partisan design. It is bad for the Senate and the country. Earlier this morning I was at the White House for the signing of the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act. Senator Campbell and I were the lead sponsors in the Senate on this successful effort, which we know as the ``Steve Young Act'' to honor an outstanding law enforcement officer. Another example of our bipartisan cooperation is the resolution the Senate passed unanimously last night regarding with the consequences of the Supreme Court's decision in the Blakely case and the need to clarify Federal criminal sentencing law, S. Con. Res. 130. The Senate has now said, consistent with the record we developed at our recent Judiciary Committee hearing, that the Supreme Court should expeditiously clarify the status of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.”