today I am joining again with Senator Grassley in introducing the Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act, legislation that will provide protections to employees who come forward and disclose to law enforcement agencies pricefixing and…

today, the Senate will vote on whether we will accept the budget gimmicks used by the Senate majority to pay for defense spending priorities, or reject those efforts in favor of a meaningful budget deal that protects both defense and…

Congress has some unfinished business before it. When the President took office, he issued an Executive order banning torture. It is regrettable that such a step was even necessary for a country that has been a signatory to the Convention…

earlier this year, the Senate Intelligence Committee reported the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act to the Senate floor. This bill is intended to facilitate sharing of cyber threat information between the private sector and the…

last night, the Senate confirmed Eric Miller to be Vermont's 37th U.S. attorney. I am confident that he will do an outstanding job as the top Federal law enforcement officer in the State. Before recommending Eric to the President, I…

on September 17, 1787, George Washington, James Madison, and their fellow framers made the momentous decision to sign the Constitution and send it along to the American people for ratification--marking a new beginning in our Nation's…

we have the benefit of looking through the lens of history to learn from past mistakes in the hopes of making more informed decisions for the future. No example is more relevant today than the unintended effects of the 2003 invasion of…

I want to speak briefly about recent developments in Sri Lanka where the new government of President Maithrapala Sirisena has taken several important and encouraging steps to promote good governance, human rights, and reconciliation since…

today I join with Senator Portman to reintroduce the bipartisan Second Chance Reauthorization Act. This legislation builds on the success of the original law and takes important new steps to ensure that people coming out of prison are…

today I am proud to introduce the bipartisan American Job Creation and Investment Promotion Reform Act of 2015, which will extend and significantly improve the EB-5 Regional Center program. Since its inception in 1993, the EB-5 Regional…

I would like to pay honor to a Vermont legend who passed away last month. Marselis Parsons, known to friends as ``Div,'' was a deeply respected newsman in my home State. His low, steady voice in anchoring the evening news became a mainstay…

nobody disputes that we all want to keep America safe. We all agree on that. We also want to make sure that we keep Americans free and that their constitutional freedoms are protected. None of us would think that we were making the country…

I thank the Senator from Utah for his advocacy on behalf of Americans' privacy rights and for his dedicated efforts to end the NSA's illegal program. In June 2013, Americans learned for the first time that section 215 of the USA PATRIOT…

As I mentioned, during the last Congress, the Senate Judiciary Committee held six open, public hearings to examine the legal basis, effectiveness, and impact of these programs on Americans' privacy rights and civil liberties. We heard…

Immediately following passage of the House version in May 2014, Senator Lee and I began working to address concerns that the text of the House bill, although clearly intended to end bulk collection, did not do so effectively. We spent…

The core of this legislation is its prohibition on the bulk collection of records under section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the FISA pen register and trap-and-trace device statute, and the national security letter statutes. Though there…

I have been proud to work with Senator Lee for nearly 2 years to develop the legislation that we have been discussing. It has involved many hours of hard work over many months. The result is a solid bill with a set of commonsense reforms…

I would say to my friend from Oregon that the American people want to know how the laws are being interpreted. They want to know what the courts are doing. As to secret operations, of course, you have had briefings on those. I have had…

It is unfortunate that we were unable to pass the USA FREEDOM Act before the June 1, 2015, sunset of sections 206 and 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act and the so-called ``lone wolf'' provision of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention…

I would also point out that when we drafted the USA FREEDOM Act, we included a provision to allow the government to collect call detail records, CDRs, for a 180-day transition period, as it was doing pursuant to Foreign Intelligence…

today I am joining with Senators Grassley and Lee in introducing legislation to extend for an additional 7 years the antitrust exemption permitting colleges and universities to collaborate on issues of need-based financial aid. This…

I wish to recognize George Schenk, founder of one of Vermont's most beloved restaurants, American Flatbread. Thirty years ago, American Flatbread was built from the ground up, driven by George's own enthusiasm, innovation, and drive. He…

the bill we just passed is a historic moment. It is the first major overhaul of government surveillance laws in decades that adds significant privacy protections for the American people. It has been a long and difficult road, but I am…

I thank the distinguished majority leader for his courtesy. Very briefly, we worked for 2 years across the aisle and actually across the Capitol. I don't know how many meetings Senator Lee, and others, and I have had. Now the Senate is…

I wish to thank the Senator from Minnesota for his words. The press and everybody else does not see the hundreds of hours of negotiations between Democrats and Republicans, Senators and Members of the House of Representatives working on…