
Eight-term Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, announced Monday he will not seek reelection in 2022. Leahy, who is the longest-serving member currently in the Senate and the chamber’s president pro tempore, now joins top Republican appropriator Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) in deciding to retire at the end of their term, creating an opening atop the Appropriations Committee in the next Congress. “My approach on Appropriations was simple: help all states in alphabetical order.…