[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 199 (Tuesday, November 16, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8216-S8217]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Farewell to the Senate

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished majority leader 
for his comments. He and I have been friends for decades. I also 
acknowledge the distinguished Secretary of the Senate, who is here this 
morning.
  Mr. President, eight times the voters of Vermont--who are my 
neighbors, my friends, my family--have had the great faith to send me 
to the U.S. Senate to represent them. Yesterday, I told those neighbors 
and friends and my family that I would not run for reelection.
  I told the Vermonters who have humbled me since my first election to 
the Senate in 1974 that I will leave this seat at the conclusion of my 
term. It is a decision I do not come to lightly but one in which 
Marcelle and I find great peace.
  In the last nearly 47 years, the Senate has become a family to both 
Marcelle and me. Here we found friends, some of the best of friends, 
and relationships that will and have lasted a lifetime. But the Senate 
has always been where I have come to fight for Vermont, a State that 
has been my home since birth, the place where I met Marcelle, where we 
started our family, and to which in early 2023, we will return for 
good. It is time to go home.
  Here is the thing about the Senate. Here is where small States like 
Vermont have not just a seat at the table but a voice at the table. For 
decades, I have been privileged to fight for Vermont, from the small 
grown-in-Vermont ideas like the revitalization of our historic 
downtowns to farm to school programs, to organic farming--all of which 
started small and have become increasingly popular across the country--
and to Vermont's trailblazing approach to criminal justice reforms and 
victim advocacy, to taking Vermonters' outward view that our great 
Green Mountain State is open and welcome to anyone, including

[[Page S8217]]

those fleeing desperate situations in far-off places. On all of these 
issues and so many more, it has been an honor to represent the great 
State--the greatest State--of Vermont in the U.S. Senate.
  I am going to have more to say about the challenges, the rewards, 
and, I am afraid, some disappointments over the last 46 years at a 
later time. Now I want to celebrate the accomplishments that, together 
with my constituents, we have achieved for Vermont over the last 
decades.
  I want to recognize the work still to do this year in Congress.
  I want to thank the unbelievably wonderful women and men on my staff 
and my staff throughout the years. They have steadfastly stood by me in 
our shared goals to deliver for Vermonters and for Vermont and for the 
country.
  I want to thank my family--my children, grandchildren, my parents, 
and Marcelle's parents who were here with me to start this journey in 
the first Senate election who I know watch over the entire Leahy family 
today. I think of how my immigrant grandparents and great-grandparents 
and Marcelle's immigrant parents, how they must feel if they are 
looking down.
  And, of course, Marcelle, my closest friend, my partner. The last 
couple of years have been challenging in ways we could never have 
imagined. But she was with me from the first moment of the first 
campaign, and we made our decision together and decided it is time to 
go back home.
  Now, we both look forward to the hard work the coming year will bring 
with the same conviction that brought us to Washington in the first 
place; that the brighter horizons of tomorrow hold the hope of the 
future and the privilege I feel to serve in this body and trying to 
guide our wonderful country toward the future.
  As I said, I will speak more about this later, but, Mr. President, I 
thank my colleagues.
  I yield the floor.
  (Applause, Senators rising.)
  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. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.