[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 103 (Monday, June 14, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S4503]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         COVID-19 VACCINATIONS

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, we had interesting news in Vermont this 
morning. Our Governor, Governor Scott, announced that we have reached 
80 percent immunity--vaccinations--and so the State will, in effect, 
reopen.
  Now, I mention this because, right from the beginning, I have worked 
closely with our Governor. We have tried to show no partisanship in 
this. I am a Democrat; he is a Republican. We are both, first and 
foremost, Vermonters.
  And restrictions were put in place. Efforts were made to vaccinate. I 
know my wife Marcelle and I went to some of these vaccination centers. 
We had everybody from Vermont National Guard to veterans groups, to 
schools, to nurses who were volunteering all over those places.
  And everybody would line up, and they would say: ``I am scheduled for 
9:20. I will be there at 9:10,'' and they just went through, and people 
wanted to get the vaccination.
  It meant some hardships while it was going on because a lot of our 
businesses could not open or had to open just in limited ways.
  But--but they kept at it, and we all worked together to help with aid 
to the State during the COVID time, and I was proud of what I might be 
able to do, but I am mostly proud of the Vermonters. They set politics 
aside; they set partisanship aside; and they said: How would it make us 
a safer State?
  So I just thought I would note that, all my trips back home, all the 
times I joined with the various people--Dr. Levine, our chief physician 
in Vermont, and the Governor and others, our Lieutenant Governor, Molly 
Gray--all of us worked together, and it has paid off.
  And I must admit, when I go home this weekend, this coming weekend, I 
am going to walk off that plane with a bigger smile than I usually 
have.
  I always have a smile coming home to the State where I was born, but 
this weekend it is going to be an especially big smile.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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