Sen. Patrick Leahy retiring, leaving legacy of humanitarianism and devotion to Vermont

Dan D'Ambrosio, Burlington Free Press
·2 min read
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After nearly 50 years, Sen. Patrick Leahy, 81, announced Monday he will not seek re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2022.

Leahy first went to Washington, D.C. in 1975 after defeating Republican candidate Dick Mallary by about 1,500 votes in 1974, as well as fending off a challenge from a Liberty Union party candidate named Bernie Sanders, who only garnered about 4% of the vote.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and president pro tempore of the Senate, pauses in his office at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 22, 2021.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and president pro tempore of the Senate, pauses in his office at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 22, 2021.

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Among the many highlights of Leahy's career:

  • First, and still the only, Democratic senator from Vermont.

  • At 34, youngest U.S. Senator ever to be elected from Vermont.

  • Current president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate; oversaw second impeachment trial of President Donald Trump in February 2021.

  • Chairman of Senate Appropriations Committee; senior-most member of Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Agriculture Committee.

  • Ranks first in seniority in the Senate.

  • Wrote the first law in 1992 banning export and use of anti-personnel landmines, establishing Leahy War Victims Fund to aid mine victims, providing up to $14 million in relief annually.

  • Worked to add more than 125,000 acres to the Green Mountain National Forest and helped secure more than $70 million in federal funds to clean up Lake Champlain.

  • Worked closely with President Barack Obama on "Plan Colombia," an effort to stop the flow of cocaine into the United States that morphed into a plan to reform Colombia's government, ending 50-year conflict with a guerilla group known as FARC.

  • Traveled to Cuba in 2014 with other lawmakers to bring home Alan Gross, an imprisoned U.S. aid worker whose release Leahy worked for years to accomplish.

  • Established national organic standards and labeling program, which took effect in October 2002.

  • An accomplished photographer whose work appeared in USA TODAY, The New York Times, Time Magazine and Roll Call.

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Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosio@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDambrosioVT. This coverage is only possible with support from our readers.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Patrick Leahy plans retirement after nearly 50 years in the U.S. Senate