Senator Patrick Leahy's Voting Record
By Discover The Networks
June 2009

During his legislative career, Senator Patrick Leahy has voted:

in favor of a 2003 bill to ban oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge;
against a 2007 proposal to permit natural gas exploration and extraction at least fifty miles off the coast of Virginia;
in favor of a 1993 amendment to reduce funding for ballistic-missile defense programs;
against major tax-cut proposals in 1999, 2000, 2000 (again), 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2006;
in favor of a 2005 income-tax hike for individuals in the top tax bracket;
in favor of a 2008 bill imposing a 25 percent tax on the “windfall profits” of major oil companies;
against an October 2002 joint resolution to authorize the use of the U.S. Armed Forces against Iraq;
against a 2006 proposal to create military commissions to try unlawful enemy combatants for war crimes they had committed against the U.S.;
in favor of separate proposals (in 2006 and 2007) to impose an arbitrary timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq;
against a 2006 proposal authorizing the FBI to conduct “roving wiretaps” and to access certain business records, as well as to make most provisions of the Patriot Act permanent;
in favor of a 2008 amendment removing telecommunications companies’ immunity from the FISA Amendments Act of 2008;
in favor of the 2006 Immigration Reform Bill, which would have created a path to citizenship for all illegal aliens who had resided in the U.S. for at least five years;
against separate bills (in 2006 and 2008) calling for the construction of 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border, and for additional measures to stem the flow of illegal immigration;
in favor of a 2007 proposal to end the use of a point-based immigration system, (i.e., a system that seeks to ensure that people with skills that society needs are given preference for entry into the United States);
in favor of a 2007 bill to fund the REAL ID Act of 2005, which proposed to set minimal security requirements for state driver licenses and identification cards;
in favor of affirmative-action policies awarding preferential treatment to business enterprises owned by nonwhite minorities and women;
against a 1996 welfare-reform bill designed to move large numbers of people off the welfare rolls and into paying jobs;
in favor of a 1993 amendment banning the possession of certain semiautomatic firearms;
against separate proposals (in 2004 and 2005) to ban lawsuits against gun manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and importers for damages resulting from the misuse of their products by others;
in favor of a 1993 amendment to substitute life imprisonment for all death-penalty provisions; and
against a 2004 proposal to make it an added criminal offense for someone to injure or kill a fetus while carrying out a crime against a pregnant woman.