Patrick Leahy, Vermont senator since 1975, announces retirement

By Andrew Trunsky

Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy announced his retirement Monday morning in his home state.

Leahy, 81, was first elected in 1975 and is in his eighth term. He is the president pro tempore of the Senate, making him third in the line of presidential succession after Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and is the chamber’s longest-serving member.

Vermont Secretary of State's Office

U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

Speaking from the Vermont statehouse, Leahy said that “it is time to pass the torch to the next Vermonter who will carry on this work for our great state.”

“I know I have been there for my state when I was needed most,” Leahy said. “I know I have taken our best ideas and helped them grow. I brought Vermont’s voice to the United States Senate and Vermont values across the world.”

As president pro tempore, Leahy presided over former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial.

Leahy was lauded by several of his Republican colleagues after his announcement, including Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who recently announced that he was running for another term at age 89. Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, was also commended by Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, the committee’s ranking member, who is also retiring.

No Republicans have announced bids for Leahy’s seat, though several reports have floated that Democratic Rep. Peter Welch, Vermont’s lone House member, will launch a campaign. Some have also speculated that Vermont Gov. Phil Scott, a moderate Republican, may run, but he said through a spokesman Monday afternoon that the option was not on the table.

“Governor Scott has been clear that he is not running for the U.S. Senate next year,” the spokesman said. “That has not changed.”

Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has served alongside Leahy since January 2003, has also yet to weigh in on Leahy’s successor.

In addition to being the dean of the Senate, Leahy is also an avid Batman fan, leading to several cameos throughout the series.

Leahy released the following statement Monday morning:

Thank you all for being here this morning. This room is special to both Marcelle and me, and not just because as a kid I used to ride my tricycle down these halls. Having grown up right across the street, Marcelle and I gathered here with our parents, our children Kevin, Alicia and Mark, and my sister Mary and announced my candidacy for the United States Senate. At the time, I was a 33-year-old, four-term Chittenden County state’s attorney, launching a campaign knowing that Vermont had never sent a Democrat to the United States Senate.

What propelled me was a belief that I understood the needs and values of Vermont and thought it was time for a new generation to address them. Dublin-born parliamentarian Edmund Burke’s speech to the Electors of Bristol served as my North Star. He said, “Your representative owes you not his industry only, but his judgment.” Burke also said that a representative “ought not sacrifice to you” his “conscience.”

After what many described as an improbable win, I began my time in the United States Senate in the aftermath of a constitutional crisis. We faced a nation broken by the Watergate scandal, the resignation of President Nixon and an endless war in Vietnam.

Within just a few months of taking office, and as the newest and most junior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, we were asked to vote to reauthorize and continue the war in Vietnam. In Vermont, where support for the war was strong, I had always opposed it. The authorization was defeated by one vote. I was proud to be that vote. My hope was Vermonters would respect my judgment and my conscience, even if they disagreed with my vote to end the war. I learned early in my career that good judgment and hard work are exactly what Vermonters expect from their representatives.

The hard work part began for me as a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, where I would eventually become its Chairman. We used it to bring several ‘born in Vermont’ ideas to Capitol Hill, such as Farms for the Future and the Forest Legacy program. These programs have conserved hundreds of thousands of acres of working farmland and forestland in Vermont and throughout the country.

That is where I began a program that has since brought tens of millions of dollars to aid in the cleanup of Lake Champlain and now Lake Memphremagog. It was also the place where I was able to add more than 140,000 acres to Vermont’s Green Mountain National Forest, one of the greatest treasures in our state.

And it was after Marcelle and I spent time in the homes of some farm families in Vermont that I was convinced we needed a law to set standards in organic farming. As Chairman of the Agriculture Committee, we were able to pass the law that established the national organics standards and labeling program, helping to launch an organic farm sector that now is a $55 billion a year industry and an important new avenue for Vermont’s farmers.

I also changed the Committee name to Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, because the former chairmen had left out nutrition. Again, by meeting with Vermonters all over the state, I realized the need to have a law that allowed SNAP benefits to be used in farmers’ markets, to increase our student lunch programs, and to give the means to create the Farm to School program. Today, more than 30 million children receive nutritious school lunches and we have established a national program to source school lunches from local farms.

We also added competitive bidding to legislation for the popular but underfunded Women, Infants and Children nutrition program. Because of that change, today more than 7 million women, infants and children receive much needed food and formula. Every time Marcelle and I are home, we see these programs thriving and growing in Vermonters’ everyday lives.

Open land. Cleaner water. New markets for our farmers. Providing nutritious food for those in need. That will be a legacy to our state for generations.

On the Judiciary Committee, I served as Chairman or Ranking Member for 20 years. My oath was to protect the Constitution and I fiercely defended our civil liberties, the First Amendment, our right to privacy and the free flow of information from the government to the people it represents. This has resulted in legislation including the Innocence Protection Act, the Justice for All Act, and Freedom of Information Reform Act.

It was in this capacity that we advanced the first update to the Violence Against Women Act. In subsequent reauthorizations, we added protections for the LGBTQ community, Native American women and the sexual trafficking of children.

Serving on the Judiciary Committee also meant being there at times of crisis such as the attacks on 9-11. We not only had to protect our nation from outside threats, but from a zealous administration that advocated some of the most serious roll backs of basic civil liberties.

Year after year, I worked with and at times pushed back, on administrations and their judicial nominations. I always worked to keep the Federal Judiciary independent for all Americans, regardless of their political background. I recommended and worked to confirm some of the top judges in the land, including Christina Reiss, who became the first woman to serve on the Federal District Court in Vermont. And most recently, Beth Robinson’s historic appointment to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. I am proud of them, and of the many other superb Vermonters I recommended for the bench and other appointments.

After a couple of years, I was assigned to the Appropriations Committee.

My approach on Appropriations was simple: help all states in alphabetical order. Starting with the letter V, Vermont.

Perhaps the most beneficial tool to help Vermont are small state minimums. Because of these funds, Vermont had the tools and resources we needed for first responders after 9-11, when Tropical Storm Irene devastated our communities, and to help those afflicted by the scourge of the opioid epidemic.

My advocacy for the small state minimum most recently meant over $2.5 billion to help Vermont with the devastating impact of the COVID pandemic. It will also mean funds for long overdue projects and investments that can be transformative for Vermont.

These accomplishments have come because of that first commitment I made to Vermonters. A commitment to bring Vermont values to the challenges we face at home and around the world. Marcelle and I visited victims of landmines in hospitals and rescue facilities around the world. What we’ve seen has allowed me to write and pass the first law in the world banning the export of landmines. It also led to the Leahy War Victims Fund to help innocent victims of the indiscriminate weapons left long after wars have ended.

We have traveled to Vietnam to restore relations between our countries through assistance with landmine removal and mitigation of Agent Orange. Our trips there, backed by presidents of both parties, have shown what positive steps can do.

We have worked to re-establish relations with Cuba and are working to undo the misguided policy of the last administration. And I am especially proud of the Leahy Law which requires us to withhold American aid to units of government in other parts of the world involved with violations of human rights. It has long been regarded as the most effective human rights tool in our diplomatic arsenal.

Throughout it all, I was supported by family and the most remarkable women and men who worked with me both in Vermont and in Washington. I am uniquely blessed to have served with fellow Vermonters who share my deep love of and commitment to Vermont: Senator Bob Stafford…Senator Jim Jeffords…Senator Bernie Sanders…Congressman Peter Smith, and of course Congressman Peter Welch. Our collective efforts are why, in so many ways, Vermont continues to set an example for the rest of the nation to follow.

I am proud to be Vermont’s longest serving Senator because I know my time in the Senate has made a difference for Vermonters and often well beyond. I know I have been there for my state when I was needed most. I know I have taken our best ideas and helped them grow. I brought Vermont’s voice to the United States Senate and Vermont values across the world.

So yes, I am proud to be Vermont’s longest serving Senator. While I will continue to serve Vermont, Marcelle and I have reached the conclusion that it is time to put down this gavel. It is time to pass the torch to the next Vermonter who will carry on this work for our great state. It’s time to come home.

I will forever carry with me the enduring bond with my fellow Vermonters, whose common sense and goodness are what I strive to match as their representative. Thank you for being the inspiration and the motivation for all the good that has come from my work in the Senate. Rest assured our state and our nation will remain resilient and the next generation will ensure our democracy remains whole and thriving.

Today, I will join President Biden and other members of Congress at the White House. The President will sign into law the largest investment in our nation’s infrastructure since the Eisenhower administration and, despite all odds, has done so with bipartisan support. We will take on the challenging yet essential tasks of passing the reconciliation bill and the appropriations bills.

When I return to the Senate, I will tell the other members of the Senate what a privilege it has been to be one of only 1994 Senators in the history of our country. I will tell them how humbled I am by the support I received from my fellow Vermonters the 24 times my name appeared on the ballot.

I will tell my fellow senators that I will not be on the ballot next year. I will not run for reelection. It is important to me to announce that here at home, just a few yards from where I grew up as a child in Montpelier.

Representing you in Washington has been the greatest honor. I am humbled, and always will be, by your support, and I am confident in what the future holds.

Images courtesy of U.S. Army National Guard/Michelle Gonzalez and Vermont Secretary of State's Office

18 thoughts on “Patrick Leahy, Vermont senator since 1975, announces retirement

  1. NH is curious to know who your next “Installment” will be…

    I wish I could be excited for you about this- I do cross my fingers and say a prayer for all my fellow Twin Staters here at TNR that the next one is not worse for you.
    Lord hear our prayers.

  2. What difference does it make ? We will be trading one Commiecrat for another in Vermont. They will make sure another one just like him takes his place. They produce them by the dozens here. The sad part is that we get no representation.

  3. Leaky Leahy..when chair of the senate Intel. Cmte ran to the Washington Post with secrets to undermine President Bush during Desert Storm giving aid to the enemy and endangering our troops. No patriot is he. Traitor to America is more like it.

  4. About dam time… I’m just sorry we couldn’t humiliate you with a lost election
    instead of your quitting.. don’t let the door hit you in azz on the way out.
    One stooge down 2 more to go

  5. Sometimes what is not said is the most important.

    Notice no mention of eB-5? Notice in Vt digger no mention of eb5? This is no accident. Who was in charge of eb5? Who arranged for the banks to do a huge payout before all this was starting a prosecution? I wonder……who has those kind of connections and was most benefitting of the coverup?

    Sometimes what is not in the news or censored is the most important.

    • It’s “Nothing to see here” Neil- as usual.
      Just like all that Jane Sanders was up too.. and that crooked situation with the college, and then the expensive Condos that were built.. more “Nothing to see here folks, move right along”.

  6. He only became a senator as a rehearsal for his Batman movie appearances and not to represent the needs of all Vermonters. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Now let’s hope that we can find a republican that can beat “muffin head”.

  7. This is the best news I’ve heard all year, ” Babbling ” Pat should have retired years ago,
    he’s that same guy when running stated he wouldn’t be a ” lifer “, typical DemocRAT he’ll
    say whatever to get elected !!

    The only one in DC that is worst when speaking than Leahy is the one and only senile Joe
    Biden……. I’m happy Leahy is retiring, Vermont needs some fresh blood in DC and I hope
    Vermont doesn’t think Welch deserves that seat, I bet Peter Welch is jumping for joy as
    the roadblock has been removed…….

  8. I wonder why he is retiring, maybe because he is also a memory center candidate, and should share a home with Biden…….good riddance for sure!

  9. Unfortunately Welsh will take his place and he’s 10 times worse. Let’s hop the GOP can field a good candidate to take Welsh’s spot.

  10. Let’s see how much of a politial animal that Phil Scott wants to be. If he ran for Senate, he’d have a chance, being a lefty syle RINO.. I doubt any other Repub would stand a chance. Scott could also run as an Independant, like Bernie….to avoid the stigma of being “R” and increase his odds.

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