Patrick Leahy

A question has been raised about statistics. I would point out that during President Bush's last year, with the Democrats in the control of the Senate, by August we had confirmed 53 of the 65 nominees sent to us by the Republican…

We have worked out an understanding regarding a study of the Northeast Dairy Compact and regarding milk pricing practices as they effect consumers. The Director of OMB will do a study on dairy, retail store, wholesaler and processor…

I want to compliment him, the Democratic leader, the chairman of the committee, Senator Biden, Senator Kyl, and their staffs, who worked with me and my staff and others throughout this week, sometimes until 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning…

So the author of the bill intends for there to be increased expansion into rural activities by the Boys and Girls Clubs even beyond the almost 20 percent expended in the first year in rural areas?

Like my colleagues, I too support the expansion of Boys and Girls Clubs. I would like to ask the author of this legislation, its principal sponsor and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, whether I am correct that this bill should…

The Senator is not only correct, but I would ask him to contrast that with the last year of the Bush administration with a Democratic-controlled Senate and the difference in the cooperation of the Democrats with a Republican President than…

We actually did better with district court judges with the Democrats in charge than President Reagan did at the end of his first term with the Republicans in charge.

My requests that she be called up for a vote before the committee was rejected, and she remains in limbo almost 2 months after her second confirmation hearing and one full year after she was first nominated. There is now what amounts to a…

I do not want automatic continuing resolutions because we will not, then, have our feet put to the fire and have to actually cast the tough votes and make the policy decisions the people of America expect us to do.

Frankly, I will say to my friend from Texas or anybody else, if they are not happy with the recommendations being made by the White House or Democratic Senators or anything else, the Republican Party has a majority of the Members in the…

This is the first judge confirmed in this Congress. I hope it will be the first of many, many. I remind my colleagues we have close to 100 vacancies in the Federal court. We have begun with one of the most outstanding nominations any…

The Federal judiciary should not be held hostage to partisan, petty, or ideological constraints that really reflect only a minority of views. The Federal judiciary is really a blessing in our democracy in the fact that it is so…

It is showing, if my friend from Mississippi will yield, remarkable speed. As I said, he was nominated in 1995, first got through the committee unanimously, Republicans and Democrats, in 1995. We are now just before our second vacation of…

In 1984, there was a Republican Senate and Republican President, and you see 10 and 33. In 1992, there is a Republican President and Democratic Senate, and the Democratic Senate actually did better for the Republican President than the…

I absolutely agree. It has been my experience in the past that Republicans and Democrats have worked closely together with both Republican and Democratic Presidents to keep the judiciary out of politics, knowing that all Americans would go…

In the 104th Congress, I tell my friend from Maryland, there was an unprecedented slowdown in the confirmation of judges to the extent that I think the only year that we could find, certainly in recent memory, where no court of appeals…

I was going to say, there is a certain glacier connotation to the speed of confirming judges.

Between 23 and 25, enough to fill a quarter of the vacancies that are pending. Of course, on Mr. Garland, he came before the committee in 1995 and was approved by the committee the first time in 1995. We are now in 1997. It is not moving…

I put into the Record the editorial from the Washington Post that reaches the same basic conclusion as the resolution of the distinguished Senator from Michigan. I spoke of the fact that the resolution before us, the resolution introduced…

I was outraged when I heard of Mr. Choephel's 18-year prison sentence in December. This followed a secret trial and followed a year of incommunicado detention. The Chinese Government has not released a shred of evidence that Mr. Choephel…

When we started off in this Congress, each one of us swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. That is our duty--all of us--to those who forged this great document. It is our responsibility to those who sacrificed to protect…

When we go to amend the Constitution of the United States, the constitution of the greatest democracy in history, we have at least an obligation to our Nation, and certainly to the Constitution, the bedrock of our democracy, to do it in an…

I am sorry the Republican whip was unable to yield to me for an observation, but I will make this observation. He condemns President Clinton, who is the only President since he has been here in the Senate who has brought the deficit down 4…

I hope, though, that those who watch this debate around the world will realize that we are making debate on what is the world's strongest economy, the strongest economy recorded history has ever shown. I worry sometimes when I hear this…

In fact, I might say to my friend from Maryland, we talk about how they might rate us if we had a capital budget. I look at the chart that he has been good enough to bring up, and I think that the United States is rating pretty darned…