Tag Archives: Patrick Leahy

Leahy to promote tax credit for fire prevention

ST. JOHNSBURY — U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy is going to be in St. Johnsbury to talk about a plan to help prevent fires that have devastated a number of Vermont communities.
Leahy is proposing the creation of a tax credit for building owners who install fire suppression equipment.
He’s making the announcement Friday at 2:30 p.m. in downtown St. Johnsbury, which has suffered three major downtown fires since 2000 that killed three people and caused millions of dollars in damages.
Since the turn of the century there have been a series of fires in older buildings in Vermont downtowns.

Leahy promises tough questions for FBI nominee

MONTPELIER — Sen. Patrick Leahy says he’ll have some tough questions for President Barack Obama’s nominee to be the next head of the FBI.
The Vermont Democrat chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is reviewing James Comey’s nomination to replace Robert Mueller as the bureau’s director.
Leahy says he’s concerned that while serving as a deputy attorney general in the Bush administration, Comey approved a legal memo that authorized the use of waterboarding and other techniques recognized as torture under domestic and international law.
Leahy says he also wants to find out what Comey sees as the limits of government electronic surveillance programs and to get his thoughts on the government’s collection of journalists’ phone records.

French mayor to sign friendship pact with BTV

BURLINGTON — The mayor of the French city that was the hometown of the explorer who discovered Lake Champlain is going to be in Vermont to mark a sister cities agreement with Burlington.
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger will sign a friendship agreement Wednesday with Mayor Michel LaMarre, of Honfleur, a city in the Lower Normandy regional of France.
Lamarre and other officials from Honfleur are in Vermont to mark the signing of a Friendship Agreement.
Marcelle Leahy, the wife of U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, also will attend with her husband. Her ancestors came from the Normandy region of France.
French explorer Samuel de Champlain was the leader of a 1609 expedition of the first Europeans to see Lake Champlain.

Leahy elevated to third in line for presidential succession

WASHINGTON — Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont is now third in the line of presidential succession.
The Senate late Monday passed a resolution approving Leahy as president pro tempore. He would replace Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye, who died Monday.
The seven-term Leahy would be third in line to the presidency, behind the vice president and the speaker of the House.
Leahy also is in line to replace Inouye as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The 72-year-old Leahy currently is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.