Patrick Leahy : Net Worth, Family, Wife, Education, Children, Age, Biography and Political Career

Patrick Joseph Leahy is an American politician and attorney serving as the president pro tempore of the us Senate, and as the senior us senator from Vermont. Leahy was first elected to the Senate in 1974, and previously served as president pro tempore from 2012 to 2015. hes the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

A member of the Democratic Party, Leahy is now in his eighth term of office. hes the foremost senior member of the Senate, and therefore the last of the Senates "Watergate Babies" – Democrats first elected to Congress in 1974, following President Richard Nixons 1974 resignation over the Watergate . Leahy is additionally the sole sitting senator to possess served during Gerald Fords presidency, and one among just two to possess served during Jimmy Carters term.

The dean of the states congressional delegation, Leahy is Vermonts longest-serving U.S. senator, also because the only Democrat ever elected to the U.S. Senate from Vermont. hes the previous chairman of the Agriculture and Judiciary Committees. He served because the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee from 2017 to 2021, and have become chairman in 2021. In 2001, Leahy was one among the 2 U.S. senators targeted by the anthrax attacks that killed five people.

On January 25, 2021, it had been announced that Leahy would be the leader at Donald Trumps second impeachment trial, becoming the primary senator to preside over a former presidents impeachment trial.

Leahy was born in Montpelier, Vermont. the son of Alba and Howard Francis Leahy. He has been legally blind in his left eye since birth. Leahys maternal grandparents were Italian, and his father was of Irish ancestry. a number of his ancestors came to Vermont within the 19th century to figure at the granite quarries and manufacturing plants in Barre Town and Barre City. The Leahys ran a printing concern across from the Vermont State House, and were also the publishers of the Waterbury Record newspaper. Leahy graduated from Montpeliers St. Michaels highschool in 1957. He graduated from Saint Michaels College in 1961 with a bachelor of arts degree in politics.

In 1964, Leahy received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. He was admitted to the bar and have become an associate at the firm headed by Philip H. Hoff, then serving as governor of Vermont. In May 1966, Hoff appointed Leahy state attorney of Chittenden County. Leahy was elected to a term in 1966 and reelected in 1970. His service as state attorney was notable for his participation within the bunco that caught Paul Lawrence, an undercover policeman for varied departments in Vermont. Lawrence falsely claimed to possess purchased illegal drugs from several people, leading to numerous convictions supported his perjury.

Leahy married Marcelle Pomerleau in 1962. Her parents, Louis Philippe Pomerleau and Cecile Bouchard Pomerleau, emigrated to the us from Quebec, and she or he is bilingual (English and French). The extended Pomerleau family established several successful Vermont businesses, and includes her uncle Antonio Pomerleau (d. 2018), a prominent land developer and philanthropist. Marcelle Leahy graduated from the school of nursing at Burlingtons former DeGoesbriand Hospital. She may be a RN and has worked at hospitals in Burlington, Washington, D.C., and Arlington, Virginia. The Leahys have resided during a farmhouse in Middlesex, Vermont, since moving from Burlington, and have three children. In 2012, they celebrated their 50th anniversary , with Leahy saying, "We hate it when were aside from each other ."

Comic Book Fan

Leahy may be a fan of comic books, and especially the character Batman. He wrote the foreword to The Dark Knight Archives, Volume 1 (a 1992 collection of the primary four Batman comic books), the preface essay for Batman: Death of Innocents (a 1996 graphic novel about the horrors of landmines), and therefore the introduction to Green Arrow: The Archers Quest (a single-volume collection of a six-issue story arc).

Leahy has also made several cameo appearances in Batman television episodes and films, beginning with an uncredited cameo in Batman Forever (1995). He voiced a territorial governor within the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Showdown" (1995), appeared as himself within the film Batman & Robin (1997), and appeared twice in Christopher Nolans Dark Knight Trilogy, as a Wayne Enterprises member . within the Dark Knight (2008), he tells the Joker "Were not intimidated by thugs," to which the Joker replies, "You know, you job my memory of my father. I hated my father." within the Dark Knight Rises (2012), he defended the legacy of the Wayne family against attempts to usurp the corporate by industrialist John Daggett. Leahy also appeared in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, playing Senator Purrington, during a scene set during Supermans Senate hearing which is subsequently destroyed by an explosion.

All royalties and costs from Leahys roles are donated to charities, primarily the Kellogg–Hubbard library in Vermont, where he read comic books as a toddler.

Patrick Leahy Net Worth

Patrick Leahy Net Worth is $ 1 Million in 2021.

Patrick Leahy Family

Leahy was born in Montpelier, Vermont. the son of Alba and Howard Francis Leahy.

Patrick Leahy Wife and Children

Leahy married Marcelle Pomerleau in 1962. They have Three children.

Patrick Leahy Career and Achievement

U.S. Senate (1975–1999)

Leahy originally aspired to the governorship, but in 1974 ran for the us Senate. He ran within the wake of the Watergate that had resulted in President Richard Nixons resignation in August of that year, won an in depth race against Republican Congressman Richard W. Mallary, and succeeded the retiring George Aiken. At age 34, Leahy was the youngest U.S. senator in Vermont history and therefore the first non-Republican senator from Vermont since 1856. hes the sole Democrat ever elected to the Senate from Vermont, and one among only three Democrats to represent Vermont in either house of Congress since the top of the war.

In 1980, Leahy defeated Republican Stewart Ledbetter by only 2,700 votes amid Ronald Reagans landslide victory within the presidential election. In 1986, he faced what was on paper a good stronger challenger in former Governor Richard Snelling, but Leahy turned it back, taking 63 percent of the vote. In 1992, Secretary of State of Vermont Jim Douglas held him to 54 percent of the vote. Since then, Leahy has not faced a robust Republican challenger.

In May 1981, Leahy and Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts requested that the Senate reject John Crowell Jr.s nomination as Assistant Agriculture Secretary. Leahy said his opposition was "because documents are uncovered since his approval by the Agriculture Committee which suggest that he was conscious of and involved within the anti-competitive and monopolistic practices of his former employer." Leahy and Kennedy contended that Crowell concealed his involvement with Louisiana-Pacific, Panhandle Logging Company, and Ketchikan Spruce Mills during the confirmation process. Crowell was confirmed by the Senate.

In 1981, Leahy introduced an amendment that might have increased the enforcement allow the Department of Energy by $13 million. He called the Reagan administrations cuts to the enforcement budget "de facto amnesty" for violations made by alleged increases in prices for oil companies. The amendment was defeated within the Senate on October 28 by a vote of 48 to 43.

On December 2, 1981, Leahy voted for an amendment to Reagans MX missiles proposal that might divert the silo system by $334 million, also as earmark further research for other methods that might allow giant missiles to be based. The vote was seen as a rebuff of the Reagan administration.

In March 1982, Leahy was named to the Senate committee to review enforcement Undercover Activities of the Department of Justice, an eight-member committee formed to research undercover operations. The resolution introducing the committee was the results of Harrison A. Williams resignation for his involvement within the Abscam bunco . On December 23, 1982, Leahy voted for a five-cent per gallon increase on gasoline taxes across the U.S. to finance highway repairs and mass transit. The bill passed on the Judgment Day of the 97th us Congress.

On October 19, 1983, Leahy voted for a bill establishing Luther King Jr. Day. Reagan signed the legislation subsequent month. In March 1984, Leahy voted against a proposed constitutional amendment authorizing periods publicly school for silent prayer and against Reagans unsuccessful proposal for a constitutional amendment permitting organized school prayer publicly schools.

In 1987, during his tenure as Vice-Chairman of the us Senate committee on Intelligence, Leahy showed a news reporter an unclassified draft report on the Iran–Contra affair. At a news conference afterwards, Leahy said, "Even though it had been declassified, i used to be way too careless about it" and accepted blame. Disclosure of that information was against Intelligence Committee rules; Leahy said he hastened his already planned departure from the committee because he was so angry at himself. Later that year, as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Leahy said if Reagan couldnt produce a suitable Supreme Court nominee to exchange Lewis F. Powell Jr., after Robert Bork was rejected and Douglas Ginsburg withdrew, Senate Democrats would refuse hearings for any candidate, until after the 1988 presidential election.

In February 1992, the George H. W. Bush administration and Israeli officials struggled to strike a deal that might entice each side to proceed with a loan guarantee package. After a gathering between Secretary of State James Baker and Zalman Shoval did not generate a compromise, Baker informed Leahy of the meetings contents and Leahy announced that he would introduce his own plan if the us and Israel couldnt come to an agreement within the following weeks. Later that month, the Bush administration announced the us would present Israel with loan guarantees as long as the Israeli government halted settlement building. Leahy supported the measure and introduced his own proposal that retained the $10 billion in loan guarantees, but "disbursed at a pace up to $2 billion a year for five years".

On November 20, 1993, Leahy voted for the North American trade Agreement. The agreement linked the us , Canada, and Mexico into one trade zone, and was signed into law on Immaculate Conception by President Clinton.

Clinton publicly weighed reducing funding for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) by half. In March 1994, during a press conference , Leahy pledged that he would preserve funding for TEFAP, noting his 1987 lawsuit against Agriculture Secretary Richard Edmund Lyng and declaring that TEFAP maintained an equivalent level of significance because it did then. In August 1994, Leahy attended a press conference with the health advocacy group Public Voice, because it urged the federal to require more ambitious steps to extend the healthiness of faculty lunches. Leahy praised the 41 schools involved Public Voice for setting an honest example for the rest of the country and cited the importance of faculty lunches to education. The 1994 midterm elections resulted during a Republican majority within the House for the primary time since the 1950s and conversation arose of limiting feeding programs. Leahy remarked, "Not since the good Depression has the likelihood of many children lining up at soup kitchens been so real." He cosponsored legislation with Indiana Republican Richard Lugar that led to the downsizing of the Department of Agriculture . In December 1994, the Department announced it had been closing 1,274 field offices round the US, a scaling back that was estimated to save lots of over $3 billion over subsequent five years. Leahy said the Department of Agriculture was the sole agency to achieve its downsizing efforts and called on other agencies to follow its example.

In 1994, Leahy introduced legislation to encourage schools to ban soft drinks and other food items of "minimal nutritional value", saying, "These vending profits choose good causes. But when it involves slot machine food , it might be better to place pupils before vending profits." The bill overcame opposition from The Coca-Cola Company and other representatives of the beverage industry, also as some education organizations, and was enacted.

In October 1999, Leahy voted in favor of the great ban Treaty. The treaty was designed to ban underground nuclear testing and was the primary major international security pact to be defeated within the Senate since the Treaty of Versailles.

Later Career (1999–Present)

The 1998 us Senate election in Vermont was noteworthy, therein Republican candidate Fred Tuttle endorsed Leahy. Tuttle was a retired farmer and therefore the lead actor within the mock documentary Man with an idea , shot in Vermont, during which a farmer decides to run Congress. After winning the Republican nomination during a campaign designed both to market the movie and to mock ostensible GOP frontrunner Jack McMullen, who had only recently moved to Vermont from Massachusetts, Tuttle recommended that voters support Leahy. Leahy was touched by this gesture; he and Tuttle made several joint appearances during the campaign, and Leahy said of Tuttle that he was the "distilled essence of Vermonthood".

The 9/11 attacks on the planet Trade Center shifted American policy focus to terrorism. In December 2006, during an appearance at the school of law of Georgetown University, Leahy said that after the 9/11 attacks, "the White House accelerated its power plays at the expense of the opposite branches of state , beat the name of fighting terrorism." He added that the administration had declined to answer "the legitimate oversight questions of the publics duly elected representatives", also as broken the law by wiretapping Americans without warrants. On September 13, 2002, Leahy said during a radio interview that an investigation should be embarked on whether the West Nile virus was a bioterrorism effort. During a Dominion Day , 2007 interview, Leahy said he wasnt against lawful eavesdropping and recommended a revision to the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act, so potential terrorists might be investigated without question. Leahy added that the White House had been subpoenaed, so George W. Bush administration officials could explain "the legal justification they tried to follow when, for years, they wiretapped ordinary Americans and everybody else put out a warrant."

Leahy was one among two senators targeted within the 2001 anthrax attacks. The anthrax letter meant for him was intercepted before it reached his office. In 2004, Leahy was awarded the Electronic Privacy Information Centers Champion of Freedom Award, for efforts in information privacy and open government. hes considered one among the leading privacy advocates in Congress.

Leahy has been active within the international effort to ban the assembly , export, and use of anti-personnel land mines. In 1992, Leahy penned a bill to ban the export of land mines, the primary law of its kind.

In 2000, Leahy cosigned a letter sent to Appropriations Committee conference members, requesting a delay in implementing Section 304 in H.R. 4392, the Intelligence Authorization Act for financial year 2001, until it might be fully considered by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. The amendment would introduce new felony crime laws, concerning the unauthorized disclosure of data . Leahy and his colleagues indicated this is able to be in conflict with existing First Amendment rights and Whistleblower Protection Acts.

On June 22, 2004, Leahy and vice chairman Dick Cheney participated within the U.S. Senate class photo. After the vote, Cheney was lecture only Republicans. When Leahy asked him to return over and ask the Democrats, Cheney upbraided Leahy for the Senators recent excoriations of Halliburtons activities in Iraq. At the top of the exchange, Cheney told Leahy, "Go fuck yourself." Leahy joked about the incident in 2007, when he escorted Bernie Sanders, Vermonts newly elected senator, to the well of the Senate where he was sworn in by Cheney: "When it involves the vice chairman , it is often better to be sworn in than to be sworn at."

In March 2004, Leahy and Senator Orrin Hatch introduced the Pirate Act, backed by the Recording Industry Association of America. In July 2004, Leahy and Hatch introduced the INDUCE Act. Both were aimed toward combating infringement of copyright.

On All Souls Day, 2004, Leahy easily defeated his opponent, businessman Jack McMullen, with 70.6 percent of the vote. On January 5, 2005, Cheney swore Leahy certain his sixth term within the Senate.

On September 21, 2005, Leahy announced his support for John Roberts to be judge of the us Supreme Court. On Robert E Lees Birthday , 2006, Leahy announced that he would vote against Judge Samuel Alito, to be a justice of the Supreme Court. He features a mixed record on regulation , being one among the few Senate Democrats to vote against the Brady Bill. He voted for the North American trade Agreement (NAFTA) and is in favor of phasing out farm subsidies that are supported by the populist wing of the Democratic Party . He voted against the Dominican Republic-Central America trade Agreement (CAFTA). Leahy voted for the Defense of Marriage Act and was one among the few in his party to support the ban on intact dilation and extraction procedures.

In 2005, Project on Government Oversight, a government watchdog group, presented Leahy and Senator John Cornyn with its first ever Bi-Partisan Leadership Award, in honor of their cooperation on problems with government oversight and transparency, including their co-sponsorship of the OPEN Government Act of 2005, which prevented burying exemptions to the liberty of data Act in legislation.

On March 2, 2006, Leahy was one among ten senators to vote against the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act, a bill to increase the USA PATRIOT Act. The Reauthorization Act changed the appointment process for interim us attorneys, allowing the Attorney General of the us to form interim appointments without term limit or Senatorial confirmation. This was a facet of hearings within the dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy. In March 2007, both houses voted to overturn the interim appointment provision.

On January 18, 2007, Leahy received widespread coverage for his cross-examination of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, about the Maher Arar affair and therefore the extraordinary rendition of Arar to Syria.

Leahy endorsed Barack Obama, the Democratic junior senator from Illinois, within the 2008 presidential election, and recorded a radio advertisement for the Obama campaign to be aired in Vermont.

In May 2009, President Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Sotomayor received criticism for having said "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a far better conclusion than a white male who hasnt lived that life." In June, Leahy discussed the remark with Sotomayor, during their meeting, and secured her consent to recount the comment. consistent with Leahy, the comment meant she believed ones life experiences influence who theyre , but that judges of all ethnic backgrounds are still required to follow the law, which is that the same for each American. In August, on the day of Sotomayors confirmation, Leahy defended her record against Republican critics: "Judge Sotomayors career and judicial record demonstrates that she has always followed the rule of law. Attempts at distorting that record by suggesting that her ethnicity or heritage are going to be the drive in her decisions as a justice of the Supreme Court are demeaning to women and every one communities of color."

On September 20, 2010, Leahy introduced the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, Senate Bill S. 3804, which might allow the court to issue a restraining order or injunction against Internet domain names which infringe upon copyright.

In May 2011, Leahy introduced the Protect IP Act (PIPA) to the Senate. The bill was drafted to offer the U.S. government and copyright holders additional tools to fight copyright piracy and counterfeit goods trafficking by foreign rogue websites. Critics of the bill said it might be ineffective, impede free expression on the web , and interfere with its infrastructure. Leahy subsequently indicated that he would favor further research into provisions that raised objections.

Leahy was chairman of the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, from 1987 until 1995, and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, from 2001 to 2003, and from 2007 to 2015. hes one among the key Democratic leaders on Senate issues on rules for filling federal judgeships, via advise and consent. Leahy is second-highest Democrat on the Appropriations Committee and as Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs. In his position because the second-highest Democrat on the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, Leahy is Chairman of the Agriculture Subcommittee on Research, Nutrition and General Legislation.

Upon the death of Senate President pro tempore Daniel Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat, on December 17, 2012, Leahy became the foremost senior senator within the majority party, and was elected because the new President pro tempore by unanimous consent. He was succeeded during this post by Orrin Hatch on January 3, 2015, and have become President pro tempore emeritus.

In February 2013, Leahy was one among 24 senators to sign a letter asserting that Sikh, Hindu and Arab Americans were often targets of violence because they were mistaken for radical Muslims and citing a requirement for the federal to "begin tracking information about anti-Sikh, anti-Hindu and anti-Arab hate crimes as soon as possible in order that enforcement can more effectively answer this threat".

In June 2013, Leahy filed three amendments to an immigration reform package, including one that proposed recognizing same-sex marriages when one spouse is an American. He said implementation of the amendment would end discrimination within the American immigration system which seeking "equal protection under our laws for the LGBT community is that the right thing to try to to ."

According to GovTrack, in 2013, Leahy was the senator who has sponsored the foremost bipartisan bills. Sixty-one percent of bills he sponsored had both Democratic and Republican co-sponsors.

In January 2015, Leahy headed a congressional delegation to Cuba, meant to "impress upon Cuban leaders the importance of concrete results and positive momentum". it had been American officials first visit to Cuba, since President Obama announced normalized relations between the US and Cuba the previous month.

In July 2015, after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was unveiled, a world agreement on the nuclear program of Iran, Leahy issued a press release saying it had been preferable to war and calling it "unfortunate" that some members of Congress opposed the deal because the lack of deal would allow Iran to further develop nuclear weapons.

In January 2017, during a hearing, Leahy asked Jeff Sessions, President-elect Donald Trumps nominee for attorney general, whether he believed grabbing a lady by her genitals without consent was sexual abuse , in regard to comments made by Trump on the Access Hollywood tape that had surfaced during the election cycle. Leahy also asked Sessions if he would be ready to "prosecute and investigate" a president or official who had been accused of committing the aforementioned act.

In April 2017, Leahy was one among 11 senators to cosponsor a bill that might have restored a FCC rule requiring internet service providers to get permission from customers before selling data about them to advertisers that had been repealed earlier within the week.

On June 1, 2017, weeks after the firing of FBI Director James Comey, Leahy and Senator Al Franken of Minnesota released a joint statement disclosing their prior request of Comey to research all contacts and communications Attorney General Sessions or his aides had with Russian officialdom and raised the question of whether Sessions had committed perjury in his Senate testimony.

In September 2017, Leahy was one among eight senators to vote against the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a defense program bill that included $640 billion in base defense spending and $60 billion in war funds.

In November 2017, Leahy was one among ten Democratic senators to sign a letter urging Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu to halt the planned demolitions of Palestinian villages Khan al-Ahmar and Sussiya, on the grounds that such action would further impede efforts to hunt a two-state solution and "endanger Israels future as a Jewish democracy".

On January 18, 2018, Leahy announced he would not support the stopgap measure for the fiscal year to avert a government shutdown, saying the House bill left "too much undone, and it is woefully inadequate". Leahy added that bipartisan support for the bill would only come from collaborating with Democrats and charged Republicans with "appealing for our support only after theyve written a mishmash bill crafted behind closed doors". After the United States federal government shutdown of January 2018 commenced, Leahy was one of 18 senators to vote against temporary funding.

In February 2018, Leahy was one of four senators to sign a letter to United States Secretary of Defense James Mattis requesting that the Pentagon estimate the cost of and time needed to assemble President Trumps requested military parade, calling the parade seemingly "inappropriate and wasteful" at a time of war.

In March 2018, Leahy wrote a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley in which he expressed his fear that "the damage being done to the FBI, and to our nations institutions more broadly, will far outlast any current crises unless we take decisive, bipartisan action" and requested an oversight hearing on the Trump administrations criticisms of the FBI and Justice Department.

In September 2018, as the Senate weighed the first spending package for the 2019 fiscal year, Leahy advocated for increasing the spending cap for a veterans care program. When this proposal was not implemented in the final version of the package, which consisted of military construction and veterans affairs, legislative branch, and energy and water, Leahy warned the decision would leave the VA choice program unfunded.

In October 2018, Leahy, along with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee Bob Menendez, and Lindsey Graham, sent President Trump a letter requesting that he begin an investigation of the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. The letter asked Trump to report the findings within 120 days, along with a decision on whether to impose sanctions on those found responsible. Later that month, Leahy was one of eight senators to sign a letter to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats requesting a classified briefing on what the American intelligence community knew about threats to Khashoggi, so that the senators may fulfill their "oversight obligation" as members of Congress. In March 2019, Leahy was one of nine Democratic senators to sign a letter to Salman of Saudi Arabia requesting the release of human rights lawyer Waleed Abu al-Khair and writer Raif Badawi, womens rights activists Loujain al-Hathloul and Samar Badawi, and Dr. Walid Fitaih. The senators wrote, "Not only have reputable international organizations detailed the arbitrary detention of peaceful activists and dissidents without trial for long periods, but the systematic discrimination against women, religious minorities and mistreatment of migrant workers and others has also been well-documented."

In December 2018, after United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the Trump administration would suspend its obligations in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 60 days, if Russia continued to violate the treaty, Leahy was one of 26 senators to sign a letter expressing concern over the administrations "now abandoning generations of bipartisan U.S. leadership around the paired goals of reducing the global role and number of nuclear weapons and ensuring strategic stability with Americas nuclear-armed adversaries" and calling on President Trump to continue arms negotiations.

After Minnesota Representative Rick Nolan retired from Congress in 2019, Leahy became the only remaining Watergate baby in Congress.

Leahy endorsed fellow Vermont Senator Bernie Sanderss 2020 presidential campaign.

On January 26, 2021, Leahy was hospitalized "out of an abundance of caution" after feeling ill. Leahys hospitalization occurred hours after he had been sworn in as the presiding officer for Trumps second impeachment trial. He returned home later the same day.