Minority News Releases
LEAHY, DURBIN, SCHATZ, SENATORS DEMAND ANSWERS FROM DOD ON ITS PLANS TO DEFUND MILITARY PROJECTS TO PAY FOR TRUMP WALL
WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Vice Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Vice Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Ranking Member on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, led a group of Democratic appropriators calling on the Department of Defense to provide Congress with a list of military projects it intends to defund to pay for Pres… Continue Reading
03.11.19
Statement Of Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) On President Trump’s Budget Proposal
For the third year in a row, President Trump has sent a budget proposal that is dead on arrival and divorced from reality. It is not worth the paper it is printed on, and it will be rejected by Congress. Yet again, the President has proposed shortsighted cuts that would slash investments in infrastructure, medical research, and American families, cuts that have been rejected by Congress two fiscal years in a row. But now he relies on a budget gimmick, Overseas Contingency Operations funding … Continue Reading
02.28.19
Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) On The Need To Reach A New Two-Year Budget Agreement
While it was only two short weeks ago that we finished the Fiscal Year 2019 Appropriations bills, there is no rest for the weary on the Senate Appropriations Committee. I come to the Floor today to talk about the need to reach a new two-year budget deal so that the Appropriations Committee can begin its work in earnest on the Fiscal Year 2020 bills. Unless we get a budget deal, sequestration returns in Fiscal Year 2020, necessitating steep cuts in programs that invest in America and support … Continue Reading
02.26.19
Statement of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) On President’s Trump Declaration of a National Emergency
When President Trump declared a national emergency two weeks ago in order to build his pet project - and in the process declared his intent to siphon billions of dollars that Congress had appropriated for our men and women in uniform- I am not sure which lawyers he consulted, but those lawyers seemed to overlook our nation's founding document, the United States Constitution. I know the President likes to communicate in 280 characters or less, so I'll point him to a 77 character phrase he may wa… Continue Reading
02.15.19
Comment Of Senator Patrick Leahy On President Trump’s Declaration Of A National Emergency
There is no national emergency. No one who subscribes to reality can claim otherwise. Crossings are historically down, billions are being spent on border security, and Congress yesterday appropriated still more. President Trump simply failed to get a deal to build his wasteful vanity wall. He failed to get a deal with Mexico, despite promising his supporters more than 200 times that Mexico would pay for it. He failed to get a deal with his own party, even during the two years when Republica… Continue Reading
02.14.19
Statement Of Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) On The Seven-Bill Appropriations Conference Report
This week, Republicans and Democrats from the House and Senate came together, ignoring the distractions and tweetstorms coming from the White House, and reached an agreement to fund our government and make responsible investments in the American people. This is not the agreement I would have reached on my own. There are things in this bill that I support, and things that I disagree with, but that is the nature of a negotiation. Everyone had to give something to reach a bipartisan compromise. … Continue Reading
02.13.19
Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Releases Border Security And Government Funding Agreement
WASHINGTON (WEDNESDAY, Feb. 13, 2019) - Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Wednesday released the bipartisan conference agreement to make responsible investments in border security and finish work on the remaining seven appropriations bills to fund the government. The $333 billion bipartisan package funds the nine remaining federal departments and their agencies, rejects President Trump's demand $5.7 billion border wall and a deportation force, and makes respons… Continue Reading
02.05.19
REAX Of Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) To President Trump’s State Of The Union Address
We truly need leadership to unify the nation at this time. After two years of division and demagoguery, tonight President Trump paid lip service to unity. Unfortunately, what the TelePrompTer giveth, the President's daily actions and hourly tweets quickly taketh away. The President again relied on fearmongering and falsehoods to justify building a wall on the southern border, a wall he promised Mexico, not hardworking American taxpayers, would pay for. Repeating the same delusions over and o… Continue Reading
01.30.19
Statement of Vice Chairman Leahy At The Meeting Of The Homeland Security Appropriations Conference
We are all glad that the senseless 35 day shutdown has come to an end, and that the Appropriations Committee can get to work and try to come up with something that makes sense for the American people. I believe we can reach a bipartisan agreement that funds the government and secures our country and our borders. But our choices about how to allocate American taxpayer dollars must be grounded in reality. We need to address problems with solutions rooted in facts, not merely rooted in campaign… Continue Reading
01.25.19
REAX of Vice Chairman Leahy To President Trump Proposing A Three-Week Continuing Resolution
For 35 days, President Trump has robbed hundreds of thousands of American families of their paychecks, forcing dedicated public servants to turn to foodbanks and unemployment benefits to feed and support their families. For 35 days, President Trump denied millions of taxpaying Americans access to public services. For 35 days, President Trump has inflicted pain on the American people and compromised our national security. And for what? All of this pain and suffering to end where we began.… Continue Reading
01.25.19
REAX Of Vice Chairman Leahy (D-Vt.) To Reports Of The FAA Delaying Flights Due To The Trump Shutdown
The rolling consequences of the Trump Shutdown will only become more severe the longer this madness is allowed to go on by President Trump and Republican Leadership. Hundreds of thousands of public servants and their families have been robbed of a month's pay only for the president to suggest these hardworking Americans "work along" with their local grocery stores to feed their families. Millions of Americans have been denied government services that they pay their taxes to receive. Now, the … Continue Reading
01.24.19
Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Statement On Day 34 Of The Trump Shutdown
It has been more than a month since the Trump Shutdown began - 34 days to be precise. I hear from people every day about the pain and suffering this shutdown has caused. Tomorrow hundreds of thousands of public servants will miss their second paycheck since the shutdown began, and many of these people have been on the job the entire time. They are angry and they are confused about why their paychecks are being held hostage by the President in what he appears to view as a political game. Man… Continue Reading
01.24.19
The McConnell-Trump “Compromise” Is Dead On Arrival
President Trump and Leader McConnell have held the government of the American people and hundreds of thousands of public servants and their families hostage for 34 days, demanding American taxpayers fund the President's ineffective wall and advance his extreme, anti-immigrant policies. The President cannot bargain with what he broke, and Republicans cannot make a deal among themselves and call it a "compromise." The Wall: The bill would provide $5.7 billion for President Trump's border wall. … Continue Reading
01.23.19
Senate Approps Vice Chairman Leahy Statement On Day 33 Of The Trump Shutdown
For a month now, much of the federal government has been closed for business while the President of the United States rants and raves about his personal obsession, the centerpiece of his extreme, anti-immigration agenda - a wall on our Southern border. For a month now, hundreds of thousands of dedicated public servants have gone without a paycheck, even while many of them remained on the job. Many can no longer pay their bills. They are worried about how they will put food on the table. Ma… Continue Reading
01.16.19
Appropriations Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) On Day 26 Of The Trump Shutdown
For 26 days, President Trump has held funding for our federal government hostage - using it as leverage to force Congress to provide $5.7 billion to build his ill-conceived, expensive, and ineffective wall on the southern border. For months during the campaign, he riled up his base with chants of "Build The Wall! Build The Wall!" He invented a crisis at the southern border and then told his supporters that only HE could solve it. And he said over and over again, that Mexico would pay for it… Continue Reading
01.14.19
Floor Statement Of Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy On The 24th Day Of The Trump Shutdown
We have entered the 24th day of the Trump Shutdown. For twenty-four days, hundreds of thousands of federal workers have lived with the uncertainty of when they will get their next paycheck. And for twenty-four days, nine federal departments and dozens of agencies have been closed for business-withholding vital services to millions of Americans who paid taxes to support those services. It has now become the longest government shutdown in history. We are the most powerful country in the world… Continue Reading
01.10.19
Floor Statement Of Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) On The 20th Day Of The Trump Shutdown
President Trump is right about one thing. Today, there is a crisis in America. But it is not fictitious hordes of illegal immigrants crashing against our southern border. That is nothing more than the imaginary invasion of a President obsessed with constructing a wasteful monument to himself. The obsession of a President who long before the Trump Shutdown began resorting to misinformation and stoking fear among the American people for political gain. There is a crisis in America, but it is … Continue Reading
01.09.19
Senate Democrats Urge Passage Of Legislation To End The Trump Shutdown
WASHINGTON (WEDNESDAY, Jan. 9, 2019) - Senate Democrats Wednesday urged passage of two bills to reopen the federal government and end the Trump Shutdown, which is now in its 19th day. The two bills received bipartisan support in the House last week. The first bill is a six bill minibus containing the bills that were either reported by the Senate Appropriations Committee or passed the full Senate with broad bipartisan support last year. Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said, "These bills ar… Continue Reading
01.08.19
REAX Of Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) To President Trump’s Primetime Address
President Trump has spent years as the host of a reality TV show, but unfortunately, reality has never been his strong suit. Even before the Trump Shutdown, the President resorted to misinformation and stoking fear among the American people in order to justify a wasteful monument to himself. His primetime address was simply fact-free fearmongering and data-distorting demagoguery. President Trump tried to make the case that there is crisis at our southern border that only a wall can solve. Bu… Continue Reading
01.08.19
Senate Appropriations Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) On The Trump Shutdown -- Day Eighteen
Today marks the eighteenth day of the Trump Shutdown. For more than two weeks now, the President has held the paychecks of over 800,000 Americans hostage in order to extort Congress into funding his border wall - a wall for which he promised the American taxpayers, over and over again, that Mexico would pay. For more than two weeks, the President has withheld vital government services to the American people in order to gain leverage to fulfill a divisive campaign promise and rally his ba… Continue Reading