Patrick Leahy

I see my distinguished colleagues, the senior Senator from Hawaii and the senior Senator from Mississippi, the leaders of our Appropriations Committee, on the floor. I just ask if I may be able to continue for 2 or 3 minutes.

I prayed that it would never be necessary to use it.

I worked after the Oklahoma City bombing to create the Antiterrorism and Emergency Assistance Program.

Too often it is too easy to forget the victim.

Victims need legal services; they need civil legal assistance.

So here we are. Deja-vu all over again.

Every year 87 percent of the Crime Victims Fund allocations go directly to the States, and, believe me, those funds are sorely needed in these budget times.

This is the wrong policy.

It is this sort of gamesmanship with the VOCA funds that has let crime victims down.

The cap illustrates the problems with so many Federal grant programs.

Crime victims deserve better than they have been getting.

The Crime Victims Fund represents our commitment to crime victims. It should be respected and honored.

I worked hard and I got Senators from both parties to work with me to protect the fund and ensure that the reserves were preserved for their intended purpose, and only one: helping crime victims.

I have always thought the irony is if we have a victim of a serious crime and we catch the person, we can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars--sometimes it is very necessary--to prosecute the person who did it, to lock them up, to keep…

No one should be contemplating raiding this vital resource for crime victims for some shortsighted, short-term advantage.

It would be a cruel irony if this were the week the Crime Victims Fund was gutted.

This is not a partisan issue.

We're the wealthiest, most powerful nation on earth. We have certain moral responsibilities and we sometimes forget about that.

Let's do the things that work, because that builds respect for our country.

Now, here's your chance to give a very straightforward question--or, very straightforward answer. It may get you fired, but go ahead. Let loose.

The implementation--that's not a one-size-fits-all thing.

I think you're going to find wars being fought over water within a decade, just as they now fight over oil.

I must admit that I'm virtually at the end of being willing to support activities in Afghanistan when we're not getting the support we should from the Afghan Government.

How are you going to do that when a government in Kabul turns power over to warlords?

What are we going to see 5 years from now in Afghanistan?