The Public Record
Patrick Leahy is a former United States Senator from Vermont, serving from 1975 until 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the longest-serving senator in Vermont's history and held significant leadership roles, including President pro tempore of the Senate. Throughout his tenure, Leahy was known for his work on issues such as civil liberties, health care, and environmental protection. He played a key role in various legislative efforts, including the Violence Against Women Act and initiatives to reform the criminal justice system.
There is a rock group that I have been reputed to have spent time with and listened to. One of their songs is ``Keep on Trucking.'' I might say, a long strange trip it has been. But if we keep on trucking, at least those of us with a touch…
I think he was just having a bad day, and I was kind of shocked to hear that kind of language on the floor.
The administration has made it a practice to deny oversight cooperation to Congress. The stonewalling in the prison abuse scandal has been building to a crisis point.
My amendment very simply says to the Halliburtons all over the country that you can't profit on the backs of our men and women in Iraq or Afghanistan. We all know that is what it is.
Let me ask the Senator from Virginia this: Suppose we have an item, and one of these contractors about which we are talking charges $2,000 for an item. It cost him $5. We remember back to the days of the $500 hammer. He charges the…
If I may respond, they realize there are not going to be bids on this contract. They realize it is going to be OK'd as soon as they send it in. They have not done any tricks at all. They just say: Here is our bill. There is nobody else…
We are getting a lot of no-bid contracts with basically the company, as we found in these e-mails, saying: Here is what it is going to be. There are no bids. There is nothing else. The Government says: OK, go forward. But there is no…
That is not a scheme. He said: I just delivered this widget. Here is your bill for $2,000. And there are so many other things going on, the Government says: Here is your 2,000 bucks. It is not a scheme. It is not an artifice. He is not…
Nobody wants to use the word ``Halliburton'' around here, but we constantly pick up the paper and read about a number of these companies. They are obviously overcharging, and nothing is happening to them. I am just one frustrated American…
Is it the position of my friend from Virginia that the kinds of things we have heard about--and he sees it more than I do as chairman of the Armed Services Committee--about the hundreds of millions of dollars being overcharged in meals…
It was not increased back in--if the Senator tells me the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was not amended on section 1001 at all, I will accept that.
I am confused by the response. Is the Senator saying that section 1001 of title 18 was not amended by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act about a year and a half ago?
If I may respond without the Senator losing his right to the floor, he is relying on a statute--if I recall, without hearings; there was an amendment to the Sarbanes-Oxley bill a couple years ago on the floor. If we are talking about…
It has to be beyond a reasonable doubt. And I have prosecuted thousands of cases, tried hundreds of them as a prosecutor. I know that is one high hurdle.
I wonder if you might consider this: have a vote on your amendment, and have a vote on my amendment separately, and let the Senate work its will. I will say this very frankly. I think the reason nobody moved to strike my amendment out of…
Today, Senator Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat, is calling for congressional hearings on the controversy.
I would suggest, especially about the report by Major General Ryder, that we find out whether there is a coordination.
The vast majority of our American men and women follow orders, do it very professionally, and make every single Member of the United States Senate proud.
I'm sorry that those that tried to find the truth about allegations of prison abuse in Iraq... were ignored.
I'm sorry there's no real plan, despite a year-long $5 million effort by the State Department, to stop the looting.
I'm sorry about administration officials, led by the Vice President, repeatedly trying to link Saddam Hussein to 9/11, when there never was any link.
I'm sorry that the President taunted Iraqi resistance fighters to 'bring it on' while our troops were still in harm's way.
I'm sorry that truth-tellers in the administration, like General Shinseki and Lawrence Lindsey, were hounded out of their job.
Politicians like Patrick Leahy
