leahy: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: mr. president, i ask consent the call of the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: mr. president, for almost two decades judge william sessions has served as a federal judge for the district of vermont, and last month judge sessions announced he would take senior status later this year. i've worked with senator sanders and representative well -- welch in the vermont bar association to convene a merit position to find highly qualified candidates to serve on the vermont district court so i could then recommend them to the president. i know i speak on behalf of all vermonters, no matter what their background, when i thank judge sessions for his years of distinguished public service. i applaud him for agreeing to continue his judicial service even after he takes senior status this summer. because of his continued dedication to vermont has one of the most highly respected, capabl

leahy: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: mr. president, if the senator from nevada is finished, i would seek the floor for a few minutes. the presiding officer: the senator may proceed. mr. leahy: mr. president, today the national security agency continues its indiscriminate collection of a massive number of phone records about americans under section 215 of the u.s.a. patriot act. now, as a nation, i have said over and over again, we have long needed to have the national conversation about data collection that is now under way. the section 215 program should have been declassified long before it was. but i want to make very clear, as i said before, i do not condone, i do not condone the way this or other highly classified programs were disclosed. i'm deeply concerned about the potential damage to our intelligence-gathering capabilities, our foreign relationships and national security, and i'm deeply concerned that one person with a security clearance cou

(laughter) and the web site thebright barth.ca's michael leahy captured why we're so angry saying thatompany used such an iconic song, one often snung churches on the fourth of july that represents the old pluribus unum view of how americans immigrateed to push multiculturalism down our throats. yes, the old pluribus unum. that's latin for "speak-a-da english speak-a-da english." (laughter) and as leahy points out, it's not enough they sang a deeply christian patriotic anthem, the ad also prominently features a gay couple. (audience reacts) for pete's sake, since when are gays allowed to gay up "america the beautiful?" (laughter) i mean, if the woman who wrote the song, katherine lee bates saw this ad, she would be disgusted and so would her life partner katherine co-man with whom she lived for 25 years in what was then referred to as a "boston marriage." (cheers and applause) folks, that was not a gay marriage, it was the 19th century. women could not be lesbians back then, okay? they couldn't even vote. or, as lesbians call it, scissoring. (laughter) well, that's it, america. i am of

leahy: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: mr. president, i thank the distinguished senior senator from connecticut for his kind words. he understands very much, as having served as attorney general of his state and various other roles in our courts, he understands very much when he says justice delayed is justice denied, whether you're a plaintiff or defendant, that's true. in fact, i express my hope that we set aside our differences -- i ask consent that we continue for five minutes for me and five minutes for senator murphy of connecticut. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: i've begun the year expressing my hope that we set aside our differences, do what's best for our country by confirming qualified nominees to fill these critical vacancies facing our federal judiciary. since senate republicans for the first time since i've been here -- and i'm in my 40th year. i've been here with republican and democratic leadership, republican and democratic presidents. never have i seen such an effort to exploit every mean

michael patrick leahy founder of talk conservatives on twitter.p with hemap right part and he tells me in writing everything i do is wrong and kelly former improv person. be yourself and let loose. let's get right to it however because we all talk about rick santelli's granted now that played out. it was a moment in america and i want you all to go back and watch the video. it's the people around him. people who are in the fine chilled -- financial industry. people who watch economic progress actually sat around him and cheered and no party registration mattered at that moment. he talked about something fundamental, very fundamental, the numbers. the redistribution, what it means so the words are important, the video matters and oftentimes we don't pay attention to that. but it led to why we are here right now because it just a cold. it's one of those moments and you guys all of you who came late to the game, days later months later whatever that is the success of the tea party movement because more people today and tomorrow will come to it. so le

know, senatoryou leahy has a bill on some of these notification issues. i think some of the issues senator feinstein raised are worth discussing. we also have to realize that smaller retailers will have different situations than bigger retailers. we recently found out that hotel chains are being affected by this and we're going to have to put something in place. senator hatchhy, has asked to make a small statement before i recognize you. >> thank you, senator. came up todayt starts out by saying that u.s. intelligence agencies will ask the obama administration to check the government network for malicious software related to the health care website. the u.s. affordable care act was bytten in part in belarus software developers under state control and makes it a potential target for cyber attack. u.s. health-care data is confounded by what they said was an internet data hijacking involving the belarusian state-controlled networks. i just bring that up because this is a very serious discussion the goes far beyond maybe what the retail community .s concerned

know, senatoryou leahy has a bill on some of these notification issues. i think some of the issues senator feinstein raised are worth discussing. we also have to realize that smaller retailers will have different situations than bigger retailers. we recently found out that hotel chains are being affected by this and we're going to have to put something in place. senator hatchhy, has asked to make a small statement before i recognize you. >> thank you, senator. came up todayt starts out by saying that u.s. intelligence agencies will ask the obama administration to check the government network for malicious software related to the health care website. the u.s. affordable care act was bytten in part in belarus software developers under state control and makes it a potential target for cyber attack. u.s. health-care data is confounded by what they said was an internet data hijacking involving the belarusian state-controlled networks. i just bring that up because this is a very serious discussion the goes far beyond maybe what the retail community .s concerned

leahy: madam president, what is the parliament situation? the presiding officer: the motion to proceed to s. 1963. mr. leahy: madam president, i would ask consent that i be allowed to speak up to ten minutes as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: madam president, last week, attorney general eric holder appeared before the senate judiciary committee. he reminded us of something that sometimes we have to be reminded, that we should support our nation's law enforcement officers and first responders. now, there is one vital program that provides, supports the families of fallen law enforcement officers and other first responders. that's the public safety officers' benefits program, the psob. i am proud to have authored legislation that has expanded and improved the psob, like the hometown heroes survivors benefits act, and the the dale long public safety officers benefits improvement act. we honor the service of these dedicated first responders. we exercise considerable oversight to make sure the progra

senator leahy has actually re-introduced a bill to do just that.rget and neiman marcus will help get that bill passed. john and marci? >> kristin, thank you. >>> sales of girl scout cookies are set to start saturday. but anti-abortion groups say, don't buy them. trying to drum up support for a nationwide boycott called cookie-cott 2014. saying girl scouts usa routinely supports abortion. but the girl scouts spokesman insists the organization has no political agendas. >> we're not a profit organization whose goal is to lead leadership girls in school. we have no affiliation with those other organizations at all. >> there are many, many good troops out there, but again i think as an organization, as a whole, there is a sense of women's liberation through abortion. >> the girl scouts add that money from cookie sales does not go to the national office. they say they'll start selling those boxes as planned starting on saturday. >>> just days after basking in the glow of its super bowl commercial, the realities of radio shack's business difficulties came

judiciary committee chairman patrick leahy in the senate has introduced a bill that would empower theine companies that fail to implement adequate privacy and security safeguards and i feel you twitching over here, tucker. >> the hutzpahs it's almost unbelievable. first of all the same people that designed and backed the obamacare web site are lecturing us about internet security? the government has got to be the most porous information system in the world is there a government system theant been breached by a hacker. bill clinton's phone calls with monica lewenski was picked up by -- if you can't secure air force one newman marcus. private industry has every incentive to keep this private and get fired. no one ever gets fired from the federal government. you will hear calls to build a new agency. a tsa for the web. unionize it really, i hope that somebody has the brass to stand up from the private sector and say back off, government. this is between us and our customers. it's not your concern and by the way, when you can secure the pentagon web site, which they haven't, come talk to

i thank you, chairman leahy, for this hearing. it's a very important hearing. oversight's very, very important. and i thank the attorney general for coming here. you take some beating by coming here. but at least you're fulfilling a constitutional responsibility of giving us information that we need in public. i have to start by pointing out to the chairman that we still haven't received answers to our questions for the record from the last oversight hearing with the attorney general, which was almost 11 months ago. as i've indicated, i think this is unacceptable. the department should show sufficient respect for this committee to answer its questions, at least prior to the next oversight hearing. now 11 months elapsed. we also haven't received replies to questions directed to other department officials who testified at various hearings over the past year. this hearing also affords me the opportunity to call to your attention, general holder, the many letters that the department hasn't yet answered. it's unfortunate that we always have to start a department ove

i am glad to say that chairman leahy has a bill that would fix this problem. i am glad to be a cosponsor. i think it contains enough flexibility that it is not a signal of how to overcome that to criminals. first, i want to get a handle on how the breaches occurred. i understand target has spent considerable resources on data security systems. but in january 17, an article in the new york times states that your systems at target were astonishingly open and particularly vulnerable to attack. i know you have had independent audits before, couple of them, saying that you had passed muster and were among the best in the industry. can you respond to these charges? >> over the past several years, we have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to improve malware detection, intruder protection and prevention, data loss prevention tools, multiple layers of firewalls, but beyond that, as you said we have ongoing assessments and third parties coming in doing penetration testing's of our systems, benchmarking us against others, assessing if we are in compliance with our ow

as senator leahy pointed out earlier, reported out unanimously. it is a waste of the taxpayers' time to go through the process we've been going through. and we're going to continue working to get -- move the backlog we have. we have scores of judges, district court judges, and we have a number of circuit court judges. and we're going to in the near future file cloture on all of them. if that's what the republicans want us to do, then that's what we'll do. the american people will see this colossal waste of time that we've been going through. not only on district court judges but circuit court judges and all nominations. so i would suggest to my friend, the senior senator from iowa, he not believe his own words because it's simply not true. the presiding officer: all time has expired. the question is on the donato nomination. the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or change their vote? if not, the ayes are 90, the nays 5. and the nomination is agreed to. confi

leahy spill -- bill, that this is coordinated organized crime. right now the information postcards in the united states is a static. it stays the same until the card is canceled. what does that mean for criminals wanting to make counterfeit cards? >> make it easier than? >> the question is, is it static data that's coming across? right. you have to understand that the data is roughly 30 year old technology. so i would agree with the fact that a three year old technology is perhaps a little bit more easy for them to utilize and put onto readily available magnetic cards or magnetic stripe cards that are available in industry today. >> we've been talking today about going to the mv technology and going to the dmv with a p.i.n. would all agree here that go the extra me hopeful? >> we believe anything that would assist in security of our nation's payment systems would be a benefit to the industry, of course. >> okay, thank you. chairwoman ramirez, when a company is really poor, digital security practices, the ftc can initiate an enforcement action tha

lawmakers have become vocal supporters of this change to the lock in a press statement senator patrick leahy the existing interpretation was so broad as to be on workable resulted in deserving refugees and a family is being barred from the united states for actions the silken gentle and humble and no rational person would consider them supporters of activity. it's why it's not everyone agrees that the obama administration's recent know. senator jeff sessions really simple in a statement saying that it is deeply alarming that the obama administration would move unilaterally to relax admissions standards for asylum seekers and potentially numerous other applicants for admission what possible connections to insurgents or terrorists groups. we need to tighten security standards for asylum not relax them even further so this move and had to learn it more inclusive immigration standards comes after the president recently promised more robust an executive actions during his state of the union dress that happened just last month. law makers of course have been promising immigration reform all this y

duration this was a truly disturbing commercial for me what so you sort of columnist michael patrick leahy no relation of the senator meanwhile went even further in a post on breitbart dot com arguing that the ad showed that as far as the executives of coca-cola are concerned however the united states of america is no longer evasion ruled by the constitution and american traditions in which english is the language of government is not a nation governed in the anglo american tradition of liberty that's right a group of children singing america the beautiful in arabic or spanish and coke commercial is a sign the constitutional government dad. as usual the worst conservative reactions came on twitter were people at fox news contributor todd starnes wrote things like crawlers the official of illegals crossing the border america is beautiful and people like this guy whose name on twitter is gareth wrote genius things like boycott coke bags for desecrating our national anthem. i don't know but i think you might want to check your facts out before you tweet here all jokes aside though the fiasco

lawmakers have become vocal supporters of this change to the law in a press statement senator patrick leahy said quote the existing interpretation was so broad as to be unworkable it resulted in deserving refugees and asylum is being barred from the united states for actions so tangential and minimal that no rational person would consider them supporters of terrorist activities but not everyone agrees with the obama administration's recent move senator jeff sessions released an opposing statement saying that it is deeply alarming that the obama administration would move unilaterally to relax admissions standards for asylum seekers and potentially numerous other applicants for admission who have possible connections to insurgents or terrorist groups we need to tighten security standards for asylum not relax them even further so this move a. more inclusive immigration standards comes after the president recently promised more robust and executive actions during his state of the union address that happened just last month lawmakers of course have been promising immigration reform all this year

pat leahy from vermont. there are a lot of dairy farms up there. and from minnesota. all that cold air is blowing from minnesota down into -- despite its name, the the "farm bill" is not just about helping farmers. secretary bill sacked calls it a jobs bill, and innovation bill. and infrastructure build. a research bill. a conservation bill. it is like a swiss army knife. it is like mike trout, for those of you who know baseball. somebody who's got a lot of tools and multitasks. it is creating more good jobs, gives more americans a shot at opportunity and there are two big ways in which it does so. the farm bill lifts up our rural communities. over the past five years thanks to the hard work and know-how of america's farmers, we have had the strongest stretch of farm exports in our history. when i am traveling around the world, i am promoting american agriculture and as a consequence, we are selling more stuff to more people than ever before. it supports one million jobs, what we grow here and what we sell. it is a huge boost to the entire economy but especially the r

john kerry, jay rockefeller, claire mccaskill, ted kennedy, patrick leahy.now that all politicians do this to a certain extent but do the clinton aides do this more than your average politician's aide? john? >> well, you know, they are much more clinical about it. they are keeping microsoft excel spreadsheets because they have come into contact with so many people over so many years that you couldn't keep it all in your head. one of the things we do in the book is go through -- that excerpt doesn't talk about it but we go through the people that bill clinton went after on the campaign trail in 2010, 2012. my favorite part of the book is howard berman who supported assume. bill clinton gave an endorsement statement and then there was a campaign to get bill clinton to stop, not do a fund-raiser for sherman and even went to hillary clinton and said he thinks it's ironic that hillary clinton is asking for his vote while bill clinton is out there campaigning against him and hillary clinton just laughed and told him that she was out of politics and as it turns out

. >> there was no press release, that kind of thing until senator patri patri patrick leahy reported we get this on our own, the big part of the law that requires them to insure their people until 2016. >> megyn, he would say, megyn, judge, i told you. i have a pen and i have a telephone. >> and i'm the president and i can do whatever i want. >> and i can do whatever i want. he may have said the last thing at jefferson's house as a joke but that is revealing his inner thoughts. he certainly didn't say as a joke, i have a pen and i have a television. because he has used that pen and 12 materially to alter the law. >> 27 times. if he supplements or compliments the law as an executive thing that is a good thing. his job is to enforce the law faithfully, meaning as it was written, not as he would like it to be. >> and how about now making the irs extract under penalty of perjury, affirmations if they want to lay people off. >> he cannot do that. he is creating a crime which he absolutely is forbidden from doing. >> it is incredible to empower the irs like that under current day and times

vermont senator patrick leahy said restrictions have been too broad. quote, it resulted in deserving refugees and asiles being barred from the united states for actions so tangential and minimal no rational person would consider them supporters of terrorist activities. some say the consequences of letting the wrong person through are potentially devastating for public safety. gretchen. >> big debate on this one. mike emanuel. thanks so much. >>> new reports claiming nsa may not be collecting as much information as you might think. the agency reportedly saves less than 30% of all americans call records. according to u.s. officials, that's because it can't keep up with surge in cell phone use as people move away from using land lines. government reportedly getting back to previous levels. >>> warning linked to civil war in syria where more than 100,000 people died before it began. fighters in syria, a small number of americans, could threaten our safety at home. he's worried training from rebel groups including al qaeda so may come back here and launch t

ladder on the congressional side and got all the way to the senate intelligence committee chairman leahy and again nothing happens so she finally talked to me. i really asked her to go full face and full name and let me use that because otherwise they would just say i'll go you are just making it up. she did and it was a very brave act on her part but she felt very strongly that the government was doing this is in this is the problem the whistleblowers they spray they don't have any real protection. we were a will to do a few things behind the scenes that got her protection within two hours of the time i came out with mike look and was on abc news. senator rockefeller and the chairman of the senate intelligence committee at the time agreed to hold a hearing, not hold a hearing but agree to an investigation and they immediately asked her if she would testify. she said she would which made her witness before a committee. they couldn't prosecute her without obstructing investigation of congress. i have never had a source get arrested or prosecuted and i want to keep it that way. >> jim lee

leahy, lea >>> a great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it.this vast right wing conspiracy that has been conspireing against my husband since the day he announced the run for president. >> that was secretary of state and 2016 possible potential candidate. hillary clinton defending her husband after concerns about his affair with interns monica lewinsky. now, documents reveal exactly what we knew all along, that hillary clinton is in fact a ruthless, scheming politician. now the research involved in one of the documents contained in the archives of former political consultant and friend, diane blair, now the papers reveal what went on behind the scenes of bill clinton's infidelity, describing monica lewinsky as a quote, narcissistic looney tune, and more on the handwritten note from blair asking whether or not they should take him seriously. now, ironically, six months later it was in fact matt drudge who broke the monica lewinsky story later. and it is unclear who this letter was addressed to but says i will be in the union downstairs at 11:30

. >> senator patrick leahy really, really wants this and thinks it will be very good. >> thank you souch for covering the topic. >>> new cover on the super bowl controversy with bill o'reilly. and whether the president has changed his story again on benghazi. i had a chance to grill the top democrat on the house intel committee on that. >> if you think of an act of terr terror is synonymous in the president's mind with a terror attack, then why two weeks later did the president decline to go that far? >>> that is next. and did you see the wild reports about actress liz hurley and president bill clinton? now it has been debunked. we'll tell you how it got to be a huge story. the story behind it all just ahead. [ female announcer ] you know the little song he'll hum as he gets dressed... you know the shirt he'll choo... the wine he'll order. you know him. yet now, after exploring vineyards in the hills of italy, he doesn't order the wine he always orders. he asks to be surprised... and for that moment, he's new to you. princess cruises, come bacnew. ♪ afghanistan, in 2009. orbiting the

we also have information that an active duty of the military and i remember patrick leahy back decemberwas railing at the nsa at the congressional hearing saying where are the heads rolling in this story? who has been fired, who is held accountable for the fact that this guy was able to access all of this information. what do you think? >> well, the bottom line, martha, the nsa is in a state of chaos. whatever is going on, there is nobody watching what's going on. but as far as snowden here, you got to wonder what his involvement is here. nobody in their right mind would hand over a password. used words like they bamboozled them, manipulated them, tricked them, it makes no sense. and here's the thing that gets me thinking, you know, the fear of what snowden caused, around the world, he's a hero and in this country he was starting to get a little momentum. i'm not going to rush to judge on this. i'm going to sit back ande fact i start believing this. yeah, there's been some people fired but we really haven't had substantial evidence this is what happened. it just doesn't make sense to me

. >> yet, vermont democrat senator patrick leahy praises the move because he claimed the original interpretation had been too broad and, quote, it resulted in deserving refugees and asilees being barred from the yunls for action so tangental and minimal no rational person would consider them supporters of terrorist activities. they offered examples of people who would have been barred. a parent feeding and clothing a young adult part of a resistance movement. an aide working handing out supplies to members of an opposition group, or a farmer who pays a toll to a resistance group in order to take his food to market. it was approved by jay johnson and secretary of state john kerry. a dhs official says, quote, these exemptions address a range of causes of individuals who they don't consider threats but have been affected by the bars of the immigration and nationality act. they said if he had concerns with the law, he should have suggested reforms instead of going around congress gin. >> it's a very great threat to the united states of america and our constitutional order. under the new law, the pre

leahy: mr. president, will the senator from nevada yield? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: mr. president, as the record will indicate, while i was -- while i opened the senate, my role as president pro tempore, now the distinguished senator from new jersey is in the chair, because i wanted to be able to, one, respond, and two, thank the distinguished senior senator from nevada for what he said. i was in montpelier, which is our capital on friday, and i spent some time with governor shumlin, governor peter shumlin who did his state of the state message on this subject, as the distinguished senator from nevada has said, and i talked to him about it. i will call him later this morning and tell him what the leader has said. i'm also going to, wearing my hat as chair of the judiciary committee, do a hearing on this. ours is a very special and very precious state, but i think it points out that every state in the union can face this problem. on the national news this morning

but also chairman leahy. if there's no objection, i asked that this be made part of the record. i turned to the ranking member. >> i have a statement i will read. before i do that, i want to say that i had the same concerns that senator blumenthal just expressed. i also want to make it clear that if i did not have the same concerns, i would be upholding the constitution and the fourth amendment, but also i think i would take into consideration a balance between our number one responsibility, national security, and the requirements of our civil liberties. first of all, thank you for joining us. thank you for holding this hearing. i welcome the board members that are with us. the entire board, it is good that the committee has held many hearings on the surveillance authorities. the committee will undoubtedly hold more sure of most important responsibility is to protect national security while at the same time reserving our civil liberties. the nsa continues to be a great concern to my constituents in iowa and o

in particular i want to thank the congressional internet caucus and its co-chair senator leahy and congressman eschew, tremendous leadership on internet policy has never been more important and more valued. a few months ago we launched the commerce department's new priorities at a local incubator in washington d.c. called 1776. i am sure many of you experienced the energy and excitement at that innovation hub in the city. that incubator and many others across the country grew out of the president's startup of america initiative which is celebrating its third anniversary. just this week. throughout the country entrepreneurs are launching web based start ups and these unique hubs. as a result, truly revolutionary ideas are finding their way into the market. internet companies are gaining traction in tandem with the overall growth in our country. with ten straight quarters of gdp growth all-time record exports and 8.92 million jobs created over the last four years. looking back, i spent 27 years in the private sector started five companies myself but the internet heavily influenced how we operate

like rand paul, who is a liberty aryan, as well as a lot of liberal democrats like lieden or patrick leahy don't like this surveillance program either. so that's why i suspect at some point the supreme court will have to make a decision. >> it's the first issue of bipartisanship in a long time when you have people on the right and left joining together. we know there is something very wrong with the program. but we also know there is something very right about the program. and so i think overgeneralizing endangers both our security and our civil liberties. that's why we have to -- >> we've got to leave it. the critics say there is nothing right about the program, because they say there is no evidence it really so far in all the years it's been under way has prevented any terrorist action from actually occurring. but that's a subject for debate down the road. alan dershowitz, thanks very much. >> thank you. >>> there's a lot more coming up from rand paul and others in this lawsuit. he's written an editorial on cnn.com. i'd like to you read the whole article by rand paul. let me quote from t

ladder on the congressional side and got all the way to the senate intelligence committee chairman leahy. and, again, nothing happened. so she finally talked to me, and i really asked her to go full face and full name and let me use that. because otherwise the government's going to say, oh, you're just making it up or whatever. so she did, and it was a very brave act on her part. but. >> she felt very strongly that the government was doing this, and this is the problem whistleblowers face. they don't have any real protection. we were able to do a few things behind scenes that got her protection within two hours of the time we came out with my book. it was on abc news. senator rockefeller, the chairman of the senate intelligence committee at the time, agreed to hold -- not hold hearings, but agreed to an investigation. and they immediately asked her if she would testify, and she said she would which made her a witness before a committee. so they couldn't prosecute her without obstructing ap investigation of congress -- an investigation of congress. so you have to do all these things in or

yeah he is joining with leahy in introducing what is called the usa freedom act.explain how the interest of conservatives come together with people across the political spectrum on this and what exactly the usa freedom act as. the bill is very much a bipartisan bill. it is extremely striking to see people who have been very far on either side of the political spectrum uniting in response to the nsa surveillance and pushing for a fairly extensive reform in the form of usa freedom act. this is a bill that is still in committee is still seeking cosponsors, but it seems to have a lot of momentum. the implication is this is a vehicle that my move forward and actually rein in national security agency abusers. the bill would do a variety of things. i would urge viewers to take some time to get to know it a little bit better. go through just a few of the things it would do, it would change the language of section 215 of the patriot act. that is the section of law the government is arguing that gives them the right to collect our telephone metadata, our call records. he wa

ladder on the congressional side and got all the way to the senate intelligence committee chairman leahynd again nothing happens so she finally talked to me. i really asked her to go full face and full name and let me use that because otherwise they would just say i'll go you are just making it up. she did and it was a very brave act on her part but she felt very strongly that the government was doing this is in this is the problem the whistleblowers they spray they don't have any real protection. we were a will to do a few things behind the scenes that got her protection within two hours of the time i came out with mike look and was on abc news. senator rockefeller and the chairman of the senate intelligence committee at the time agreed to hold a hearing, not hold a hearing but agree to an investigation and they immediately asked her if she would testify. she said she would which made her witness before a committee. they couldn't prosecute her without obstructing investigation of congress. i have never had a source get arrested or prosecuted and i want to keep it that way. >> jim lee to

libertarians and mike lee and rapped paul joining sides with dick durbin and patrick leahy to pass theseee pa start support. >> let me devil's advocate you a little bit before prosecutors are saying mandatory minimums are a valuable way to compel defendants to testify. back in the day they would do it, now they're facing basketball sentences, 60, 70, years. no, i'm going to snitch, i'm not going to do this time all by myself. so what do you think about prosecutors saying that losing mandatory minimums would cost prosecutors a key tool in the war on drugs? >> i think this tool that the prosecutors -- look, prosecutors in the letter to attorney general, it's a small fraction who disagree with the attorney general on this issue. but those who do disagree, this is not a tool that they should have to use to lock up mostly black and brown people. the judge should be able to judge those who are before him or her and sentence thm accordingly. the fact the prosecutors have this tool to use against nonviolent drug offenders, we're not saying this should change for those who carry a gun, but those wh

burning question about what happens next when the chairman of the senate judiciary committee patrick leahy oppose any further aid to the ugandan government. he said, "until the united states has undergone a review of our relationship." secretary of state john kerry did say yesterday the u.s. would begin an internal review of our relationship and engagement with uganda including assistance programs. meanwhile the "wall street journal" reports other countries are not waiting. norway, denmark and the netherlands announced they'll withhold further aid to the nation of uganda because of this issue. it was a big deal when hillary clinton gave her human rights day speech in 2011 when she said for the united states, gay rights are human rights and our country will consider gay rights issues when dealing with other countries around the world from this point forward. but that speech was not just a big deal for hillary clinton as a figure in american politics. hillary clinton as a potential political candidate. she was speaking as secretary of state and that was a big deal for u.s. foreign policy. wh

leahy, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president, i move to move to calendar number 297, the veterans omnibus bill. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: motion to proceed to calendar number 297, s. 1950, a bill to improve the provision of medical services and benefits to veterans, and for other purposes. mr. reid: mr. president, following my remarks and those of the republican leader, we will resume consideration of the conference report to accompany the farm bill, h.r. 2642. the time until 5:30 will be equally divided between the two leaders or their designees. at 5:30, there will be a cloture vote on the farm bill conference report. as we have already announced, the final passage will be tomorrow after our weekly caucuses. s. 1977, i'm told, is due for a second reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title of the bill for the second time. the clerk: s. 1977, a bill to repeal section 403, the bipartisan budget act of 2013, relating to an annual adjustment of retired pay for members of t

and while we're at it, pat leahy from vermont. there are a lot of dairy farms up there. all that cold air is blowing from minnesota down into -- now, despite its name, the farm bill is not just about helping farmers. secretary vilsack calls it a jobs bill, an innovation bill, an infrastructure bill, a research bill, a conservation bill. it's like a swiss army knife. it's like mike trout. it's like for those of you who know baseball. it's somebody who's got a lot of tools and multitasks. it creates more jobs. first, the farm bill lifts up our world communities. over the past five years, thanks to the hard work and know-how of america's farmers, the best in the world, we've had the strongest stretch of farm exports in our history. when i'm traveling around the world, i'm promoting american agriculture and as a consequence we are selling more stuff to more people than ever before. 1 million american jobs, what we grow here and what we sell is a huge boost to the entire economy but particularly the rural economy. here at michigan state, by the way, you are helping us to do e

got all the way to the senate, the senate intelligence committee chairman leahy, and again nothing happen. so she finally talked to me and i really asked her to go full faith and full name and let me use that. it is otherwise the government can just say, oh, you're just making that up or whatever. it was a very brave act under par. she felt very strong the government was doing this and this is the problem whistleblowers face. they don't have any real protection. we were able to get a few things behind the scenes that got her protection. within two hours of the time we came out with my book, was on abc news. senator rockefeller, chairman of the senate intelligence community at the time, agreed to hold a hearing -- not hold a hearing but agreed to an investigation and they neatly asked her if she would testify and she said she would, which made her a witness before a committee so they couldn't prosecute her without obstructing an investigation of congress. so you have to do all these things in order to protect sources but i've never had a source ever get arrested or prosecuted, and i want t

keith alexander at the time that got no where so on the congressional side but again with chairman leahyothing happened she finally talk to me by astor to go full face otherwise the government would say you make it up. associated and was a very brave act on her part to she felt very strongly. so then they can now with my book on abc news senator rockefeller and the chairman of senate intelligence committee at the time agreed to hold or at an investigation and immediately asked her if she would testify and she said