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Floor Speech
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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, the desk behind me is empty at this moment, but whenever anything important is taking place on the floor, you will find seated there the dean of the U.S. Senate, Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont.
This week, he surprised a number of us by announcing his retirement at the end of next year.
I have come to know Pat during my service in the Senate. He is a humanitarian. He is a gifted lawmaker and a passionate defender of America's national ideals and, I might add, of international human rights. Loretta and I count Patrick and his wonderful wife Marcelle as really good friends.
I have been on the Senate Judiciary Committee, chairing it for a year. I have more insight into that job than I ever had before, and I have certainly realized that when Senator Leahy was the chair of that committee, he wrote an extraordinary record, which many of us only dream of emulating.
I thank him for his passionate, consistent, faithful support of the DREAM Act, which I introduced 20 years ago, and his efforts to help me get this enacted into law. I also appreciated when he gave me the opportunity to create a new subcommittee in Judiciary entitled the ``Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law,'' which I chaired. We did good things for America and the world.
Pat Leahy is known throughout the world, and I mean that literally, as a defender of human rights and human dignity. I have seen it so many times.
He and I decided to join forces a few years ago on behalf of a political prisoner. Her name is Leila de Lima. She is a human rights advocate and a senator in the Philippines. She is in jail.
Two years ago, Senator Leahy passed an amendment on her behalf in the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee. As a result, strongman Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines banned both Senator Leahy and myself from entering the Philippines because of our action. I can tell you that we take great pride in being singled out in that manner. Duterte knew, as we all know, that when Patrick Leahy sees injustice, he will use his power in office to put things right.
His service in the Senate has been a great benefit to our Nation, our world, and his beloved State of Vermont, and we will certainly miss him when he retires. I will just add, though, watch closely because he is going to run through the tape. He has a little over a year left in the Senate, and I am sure he will work for that entire period of time for the betterment of this Nation and his beautiful Vermont.
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