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.
today, I am pleased to introduce an important bipartisan bill to ensure that the Freedom of Information Act, FOIA, remains an effective tool to provide public access to critical information about the stability of our financial markets. My…
I want to call attention to language in Senate Report 111-237 accompanying the fiscal year 2011 Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs appropriations bill, which passed out of the Appropriations Committee on July 29…
As Senator Feinstein has described it, Section 337 of the bill is intended to provide a preliminary framework for executive and congressional oversight of cybersecurity programs, as defined in the section, to ensure that these programs are…
I might say what a red herring this question is of where a recruiter's office is. If you have people who want to serve in the military, they can usually find them. Our youngest son joined the U.S. Marine Corps directly out of high…
I am grateful to Dean Kagan for her leadership on military recruiting, as well as the myriad of other positive impacts that she had on my law school experience. I would not be serving today-- Referring to the military-- without it. She has…
more than 12 weeks ago, President Obama nominated Elena Kagan to succeed Justice John Paul Stevens as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. When the President announced his choice on May 10, he talked about her…
It is important that we restore public confidence in our courts. They do protect our rights. They do protect the Constitution. But we have to make sure we respect what they do. We need judges and Justices who will fairly apply the law and…
I take this opportunity to call the Senate's attention to the imminent opening of the new President Calvin Coolidge Museum and Education Center, a wonderful year-round tribute to President Coolidge, located in the graceful and historic…
today, the Senate considers bipartisan legislation to make a number of improvements in the way the Copyright Office functions. This bill will also clarify certain areas of copyright law to provide certainty, and make technical corrections…
today, I am pleased to introduce the Food Safety Enforcement Act, legislation that will hold criminals who poison our food supply accountable for their crimes. This common sense bill increases the sentences that prosecutors can seek for…
I commend the majority leader for introducing the Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Company Accountability Act. This bill, which I am proud to support, is a timely and targeted response to the continuing devastation in the Gulf of Mexico, a…
I am pleased that the Senate has acted quickly and in a bipartisan way to ensure that fees collected by United States Patent and Trademark Office, USPTO, are not diverted for other purposes this fiscal year. The Director of the USPTO has…
today, the Senate is attempting to fix an important problem created earlier this year by the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. In that case, five Supreme Court Justices cast aside a century of law…
today I introduce legislation to create an express exemption in the Federal Bankruptcy Code for personal firearms. Given the place that firearms occupy in our culture for law-abiding Americans, I believe it makes sense for the Federal…
The Director has been very open in his efforts to balance the efforts in law enforcement while maintaining the values and the freedoms that we hold dear as Americans.
It seems to me that when years have passed, people under investigation ought to be told if the investigation is over.
It seems to me that where you have separation of powers and you have the chilling effect that an FBI investigation has on a Member of Congress like Curt Weldon, it ought to be handled with the greatest intensity possible to pursue the…
Oversight is one of our most important responsibilities, and this Committee has taken it very seriously.
earlier this week, I came to the Senate with the respected senior Senator from Tennessee and sought a time agreement to consider Jane Stranch of Tennessee, a judicial nomination that has been stalled by the Republican leadership for more…
I am honored to share a Vermont community's tribute to the stout hearts and brave souls of the service men and women serving overseas. This year, in recognition of Vermont's largest military deployment since World War II, the townspeople…
I am terribly disappointed. With this objection, Senate Republicans have further ratcheted up the obstruction and partisanship that has become commonplace this Congress with regard to judicial nominees. I had honestly hoped that working…
I am hopeful the Senate Republican leadership would take the opportunity to enter into a time agreement on 1 of the more than 20 judicial nominees who have been stalled from Senate consideration. I am referring to the nomination of Jane…
We are going to consider the important issue of how best to ensure that when people get out of prison, they become productive members of society rather than turning to a life of crime.
Politicians like Patrick Leahy
