BIG Vermont transportation news — 1/6 Pleased to announce with @SenSanders @PeterWelch @GovPhilScott and others VT will receive over $34 million of RAISE grants from @USDOT to replace the Winooski River Bridge; construct the Federal Street Multi-Modal Connector in St. Albans; and improve public transit in NW VT. 2/6

Powerful words from #VT’s TAG MG Knight. When I spoke with him yesterday, I told him how proud I was. leahy.senate.gov/press/comment-… TAG presents @VTNationalGuard’s Vermont Battle Flag to MSgt Fitzgerald (longest serving enlisted) and Airman 1st Class Gullo (the newest enlisted #VTANG member deploying).

The Army Mountain Warfare School in Jericho, VT, trains not only soldiers from the Active, Guard, and Reserves, but also members from every service, Federal agencies, and NATO Allies. LTC Gagner (r) knows Mountain training is about moving and succeeding in difficult conditions and difficult terrain—it’s turning challenges like this wall behind me and MG Knight into opportunities.

Republicans blocked a bipartisan COVID package that would have provided more vaccines, tests, & treatments to Americans. They would rather hold this bill hostage to secure votes on partisan, unrelated policy matters than make Americans more safe from the next COVID surge/variant. This is not the bill I would have written. The lack of any funding to support a global vaccination campaign is shortsighted & dangerous. A virus does not recognize our borders. But that is the result of a bipartisan negotiation. The Senate should have advanced this bill today.

Yesterday the Senate passed the Health Care for Burn Pits Veterans Act, led by my friends @SenatorTester and @JerryMoran. Huge step forward, that I am proud to support because it makes a difference now while we keep working for more. Veterans in Vermont and @VTNationalGuard have died of rare #cancer after service exposure to burn pits. I’m proud to co-sponsor Health Care for Burn Pits Veterans Act which strengthens toxic exposure research and helps @DeptVetAffairs understand links btwn exposure and illness.

Nine years ago, I was proud to lead the bipartisan efforts to reauthorize and strengthen the historic Violence Against Women Act. And when that authorization lapsed three years ago, I immediately set to work with others in the Senate to draft a new authorization to support victims of violence.

We’re #VermontProud that the Senate confirmed @Middlebury native Elizabeth Rosenberg in our marathon session this morning, at 2a.m. Her skills and experience and knowledge are needed right now in a key role at the Treasury Department to help protect our national security and crack down on terrorists and other financial criminals.

Another #BatWeek sundown is here. There are 9 species of bats in #VT, and 2 are threatened and endangered species—The Indiana bat and the northern long-eared bat. Other bats in Vermont are the little brown bat, tricolored bat, eastern small-footed bat, silver-haired bat, hoary bat, and the eastern red bat.

Vermont Women’s Economic Opportunity Conference keynoter Xusana Davis at #WEOC today: On opportunity: “There’s always the implication there’s a transfer… that’s our first mistake. The barriers to opportunity aren’t just something we can unlock with three equal payments of $39.95.”

Today we break ground on a major project @BTVAirport. For the past three years I have worked with the FAA to ensure #BTV would be eligible for new federal investment in its terminal, and helped secure $15 million in federal funds to make this project a reality. At its heart this project is about two things: improving the traveler experience and increasing the destinations you can reach from Burlington. Does anyone enjoy the stress of waiting in a long line to go through security? #BTV

Our #infrastructure bill will bring the funds necessary to build a completely new @CBP port at the Highgate Springs Land Port of Entry on Interstate 89. Vermonters have been asking for improvements to this crossing for years. @USGSA Administrator Carnahan knows, as Vermonters do, that Highgate currently experiences long delays at peak travel times, and the completion of the A35 highway in Canada will only increase traffic in the coming years.

Today in Groton, CT, we celebrated the commissioning of The USS Vermont (SSN-792). COVID meant the commissioning in April 2020 was a private affair, but today anyone can see how proud we are of this fine submarine and its crew.

https://twitter.com/WarshipCam/status/1430902194249687042

Brig. Gen. Hank Harder of the Vermont National Guard presents the Commander of the USS Vermont a jug of GENUINE Vermont Maple Syrup. @VTNationalGuard

Ensuring that every American can vote in our elections is not a partisan question. It is the core of our democracy. #ForThePeople Republicans should not be allowed to hide behind procedure. Stand up and vote — just like our constituents should be able to do. #ForThePeople

Yesterday I spoke with EPA Administrator @EPAMichaelRegan about the EPA’s important Geographic Programs, and how programs for Lake Champlain and the Great Lakes programs can benefit one another. The Lake Champlain program, which the Trump administration repeatedly sought to ELIMINATE, is fundamental to EPA’s mission. #Appropriations

Domestic violent extremism is hardly a new problem in America, but we're facing a class of criminals who are more emboldened than ever. Why? Never before had these extremists received political cover from an American President. That's what we saw during the last four years. As Appropriations Committee Chairman, I'm committed to combatting violent extremism in ALL its forms. But let's not draw false equivalence between white supremacist extremists--who represent the MOST LETHAL threat we face--& other types of extremism. Let's follow the facts.

There’s much to love about @Amtrak’s proposed new service map. Over the past decade I worked in the #Appropriations Committee to secure millions of dollars to extend the Ethan Allen from Rutland to #BTV. The construction work making that expansion will be completed this year. On the #Appropriations Committee I’ve always made #Amtrak a funding priority. We also secured Obama-era ARRA funds to make major investments in the #Vermonter route to increase its speeds. These prior federal investments make the #VT expansions Amtrak has laid out possible.

I was proud this afternoon to meet up with Vermonters from the Vermont National Guard who’ve been in Washington to protect the Capitol and our nation during this historic week. We are grateful for their service.

If our democracy is to endure, and I believe it will, today must mark the beginning of the end of the dark undercurrent of insurrection fueled and exploited by President Trump. Read my comment on the President’s second impeachment here: leahy.senate.gov/press/comment-… Pres. Trump has not simply failed to uphold his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, which itself would be sufficient to warrant impeachment and removal. He has emerged as the *greatest threat* to the Constitution and to American democracy in a generation.

Today marks the eighth year anniversary since the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. I am thinking of all the families that had someone taken from them on that terrible day. I’ve always been inspired by how so many Sandy Hook parents channeled their grief and hardship to push for commonsense changes to our nation’s gun laws, to hopefully prevent such tragedies from occurring again.

Today, SCOTUS will hear oral arguments for the GOP’s case to overturn the entire #ACA. Here’s what’s at stake for VTers: higher premiums, loss of Medicaid expansion, reopening of the Medicare “donut hole,” loss of federal protections for those with #PreExisting conditions. (1/4) During Justice Barrett’s hearings, I shared stories of Vermonters who would be hurt if the #ACA were struck down…VTers such as Martha Richards, who depends on expanded Medicaid for access to health care. (2/4)

Days from an historic election, Republicans are doing everything they can to prevent Americans from participating in it. They’re waging an all-out war on voting in courts across the country. A THREAD: Exhibit A: Rs in PA just suffered a setback at SCOTUS following their repeated efforts to prevent legitimately cast ballots postmarked by the election and received within 3 days of the election from being counted.