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A bipartisan pair of senators — including one presidential candidate — is pushing forward with an emergency spending bill to help strengthen the administration's ability to combat the Syrian refugee crisis. Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have rolled out legislation that would provide an extra $1 billion in emergency funding, mandating that the White House tell Congress within 45 days how it will use the money....

Democrats have rolled out a proposal that would restore a key provision of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court struck down in 2013. The bill, introduced by Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.), would establish a new formula to determine which state and local governments are required to get approval before changing their voting laws. Under the legislation, states that have a "record of racial discrimination" within the past 25 years would need federal approval to change their voting laws, according to a fact sheet from Leahy's office. The proposal would also allow...

You just have to ask, whose side are the Democrats on? President Obama offered congratulations and provided the Muslim Brotherhood with weapons support — thank God Egyptian General al-Sisi didn’t stand for that foolishness. And now we have U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D – VT) showing just who he supports in Egypt — hint, it ain’t the good guys. According to the Washington Free Beacon, Leahy has prevented all U.S. military assistance to the Egyptians, including 10 Apache attack helicopters, saying the Egyptian government had violated human rights in ousting the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood regime. What freakin’ planet did this...

A U.S. senator is blocking the delivery of 10 U.S. Apache attack helicopters urgently sought by the Egyptian government since last spring to battle al Qaeda terrorists in the Sinai peninsula. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.) has prevented all U.S. military assistance to the Egyptians, asserting the Egyptian government had violated human rights in ousting the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood regime. Leahy imposed the hold on the aircraft five days after the Pentagon announced the helicopters were urgently needed to fight terrorism and would be delivered. White House and State Department officials said this week they are working with Congress to...

Sen. Ted Cruz went after FBI Director James Comey, who promised a year ago that the IRS investigation would be a very high priority. Yet today, as Comey sits before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he won’t answer whether a single person has been interviewed or, really, much else about the investigation, hiding behind the fact that it’s an ‘ongoing investigation’. What I like about this clip is the passion with which Cruz questions the FBI Director. He also hits back at Leahy, the committee chair, when he’s basically told to accept the witness’ non-answer. Cruz pretty much tells Leahy that...

Did you see Senator Pat Leahy on Chris “Meatloaf, Jr.” Wallace’s Fox News Sunday show? He made this rather astonishing revelation: American people are at risk of being controlled by their government! I hate to say “I told you so” butt, you know…It’s as if something deep in his brain snapped and he just realized that government can be, well, dangerous when “it” rather than “the people” hold the power. “The concern everybody has is allowing our government to have such a reach into your private life, my private life, and everybody else’s, that we are, we have the government...

Sen. Patrick Leahy says the American people are at risk of being controlled by their government due to the expansive surveillance powers of the National Security Agency. Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” the Vermont Democrat and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee told host Chris Wallace that the nation’s lawmakers must act to return control of the government to the people.

President Barack Obama faces a clear uphill battle in swaying skeptical lawmakers of the merits of military action in Syria, as top officials were dispatched to Capitol Hill Sunday to make the administration’s case. For example, Senate Democratic aides are drafting new language for an authorization of military force in Syria, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said Sunday. The administration’s proposal is too open-ended — a complaint many lawmakers have — Leahy said after leaving the classified briefing. The current version wouldn’t garner his support, but he indicated that a more tightly written draft might. “I know it’s going to be...

The U.S. government has decided privately to act as if the military takeover of Egypt was a coup. After asserting this was not a coup has now decided to go with a temporarily press blitz attributing the spontaneous De-Morsification is connected directly to earlier ant-imam, video and California pure pork sausage sponsor, according to this leading U.S. senator. “The decision was we’re going to avoid saying it was a Coup, Embassy attack, Muslim fanatic rampage, Gun running grab, but to stay on the safe side of the law, we are going to act as if the , designation has been...

Wednesday was blowback day. On Monday, 15 Republicans voted with every Democrat to END DEBATE on a phony "Border Surge" amendment which had been released just 72 hours before, and had ZERO hearings or hours of debate. It was disgraceful. It reeked of the same process by which ObamaCare was shoved down our throats by Pelosi & Co. And worse still, the promises of "700 miles of border fence" and a "massive deployment of force" to our border were soon revealed to be complete and utter LIES, as DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano has unlimited discretion NOT to build fencing and...

Immigration Reform News: Leahy Formally Pushes 2 Same-Sex Amendments Sen. Leahy wants same sex couples to be able to sponsor green cards their foreign-born spouses just like heterosexual couples. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., on Tuesday formally filed two amendments, both covering same-sex couples, to the comprehensive immigration reform bill. The first amendment would allow Americans in same-sex relationships to sponsor green cards for their foreign-born partners. The second would provide the same protection to legally married bi-national same-sex couples that's afforded to others under existing immigration law. “For immigration reform to be truly comprehensive, it must include...

Sen. Rand Paul said Monday that the immigration reform debate should be halted until Congress first understands what went wrong in Boston, where two brothers who came to the U.S. legally under the asylum program have been accused of the deadly bombings at last week’s marathon. The Kentucky Republican had given the immigration issue a big boost when he said earlier this year he supported taking action. But in light of last week’s bombings, Mr. Paul said things have changed. “The facts emerging in the Boston Marathon bombing have exposed a weakness in our current system. If we don’t use...

WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Friday named Mark Lippert, a Navy veteran and Pentagon official, as his chief of staff. Lippert, 40, currently assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, takes over May 1 as Hagel’s right-hand man. Marcel Lettre, Hagel’s acting chief of staff for the moment, will become Lippert’s deputy, and later move to an still-undetermined senior position, officials said. A White House insider, Lippert has ties to both Hagel and President Barack Obama that stretch back years. He accompanied both men, when they were still senators, on a 2008 visit to Afghanistan,...

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) blasted Democrats on Tuesday for scheduling only two hearings on the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill. Sessions accused Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) of trying to rush the legislation to the Senate floor with “minimum public scrutiny.” “Chairman Leahy’s decision to now hold two hearings in two day — one on Friday, one on Monday — is only further proof of the majority’s desire to rush this bill,” Sessions said in an email to The Hill. “We are talking about legislation that will impact virtually every aspect of our society, reshape our entire immigration...

Above: The Gang of Seven plus their mascot Marco Rubio, yucking it up as they announce their amnesty plan in January. - by John HillStand With ArizonaWebsite | Facebook | Twitter Just when you thought the Senate push for amnesty couldn't get any more shameful...it sets a fresh low All the members of the “Gang of Eight” pushing so-called 'immigration reform' in the U.S. Senate will band together to block any efforts by other senators to offer amendments to their legislation once it is introduced, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. In addition, the Post's David Nakamura reported that the...

by John HillStand With ArizonaWebsite | Facebook | Twitter Expecting an open debate in the Senate on the upcoming illegal alien amnesty bill? Don't bet on it. Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT), the Senate Judiciary Chairman, indicated that he will expedite "immigration reform" by skipping further committee hearings on the legislation in a nasty letter to a leading Republican lawmaker. “I intend to proceed to comprehensive immigration reform with all deliberate speed,” Leahy wrote to Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., in a letter today informing Sessions that Republicans will only have one week to consider the immigration bill. Leahy also said that...

Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt., indicated that he will expedite immigration reform by skipping by further committee hearings on the legislation in a sharp letter to a leading Republican lawmaker — a letter characterized by a striking amount of trash-talking about immigration issues and politics. “I intend to proceed to comprehensive immigration reform with all deliberate speed,” Leahy wrote to Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., in a letter today informing Sessions that Republicans will only have one week to consider the immigration bill — [snip] “If any of the more junior Senators need time to get up to speed, I will look...

During the Senate Judiciary Committee debate on gun legislation Thursday, Senator Leahy cut off Senator Cruz and angrily scolded the young senator for "lecturing" him on how to be a Senator.

As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., will oversee any legislation on gun control that makes its way to the Senate floor. At the first in a series of congressional hearings on the issue Wednesday, his line of questioning suggested that expanded background checks and closing the so-called gun show loophole will be top priorities — and perhaps the only ones that stand a chance in the full Senate. Displaying his background as a Vermont prosecutor, Leahy confronted National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre on whether he had changed his support for mandatory instant criminal background checks...

There is a showdown over guns coming to the Senate Wednesday, but no firearms are allowed. In advance of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday morning, two of the committee’s Republican members sent a complaint that they were refused permission to bring guns to the hearing. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas sent a letter Tuesday night to Chairman Patrick Leahy, Vermont Democrat, that the purpose of bringing the firearms was to educate fellow Senators and “shatter the mistaken belief that guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens are a danger to society.” However,...