Patrick Leahy

The recovery in Galena is as important to me like the recovery from Katrina and Rita is to Senator Landrieu.

Cybersecurity I think is very important.

Can you assure me that as you fill these positions, attention will be given to the northern border?

The EB-5 program has been extremely helpful to us. We used to adjudicate applications within 6 months. It is now taking 12 to 14 months, which really cripples the program.

I have enjoyed the times we have met and talked, including today when you talked about Barry Goldwater.

The sweeping immigration reform legislation will help unite families, boost the economy, and bring millions out of the shadows and into our legal immigration system.

I will invite you to come to Vermont with me some time, not today. We are having about 20 inches of snow, and it is so bad that some of the schools will open an hour late tomorrow with that kind of snow.

Canada is our biggest trading partner. It's a very long border.

It has become really worrisome, and I know a lot of these people--businesspeople in Vermont and others, and people who are tourists, members of my own family, who suddenly will sit there for 2 hours to go across the border, but they are…

Please tell FEMA do not forget the little State of Vermont.

We included funds in the omnibus for hiring 2,000 new agents, and that is good.

I believe you need more staff to carry this out, because I think--again, I do not care whether you have a Republican or Democratic administration.

To be serious--I was serious about that, but to be serious, we are considering a legislative proposal to make OGIS more independent.

But the Attorney General's Guidelines say they will not defend an agency's decision to deny a FOIA request unless it would cause a foreseeable harm.

I think that is a real accomplishment in the politicized world that Washington is today.

It is an area where I believe we can find common ground and should move forward with it.

What message does the Justice Department's argument send to other agencies?

I am concerned, though, that rather than lead in a positive way, this office has reacted in a way that is contrary to the President's transparency promise.

I expect that we will hear about some of the changes in technology that are taking place to make the FOIA process better.

I am concerned that the growing trend toward relying upon FOIA exemptions to withhold large swaths of Government information is hindering the public's right to know.

I will continue to work so they get the tools and the resources necessary.

I worry that they get undermined by the growing use of FOIA exemptions.

As a Senator, I have had my own challenges in obtaining information not only from this administration but a lot of administrations since I have been in the Senate.

I am frustrated with the legal argument that the Justice Department and the Federal Election Commission made in a recent FOIA case.

The American public is served only if it knows what its Government is doing and why.