Mark Dayton: “last Saturday, President Bush castigated those of us who voted against cloture on the PATRIOT Act. He said: That…”

“last Saturday, President Bush castigated those of us who voted against cloture on the PATRIOT Act. He said: That decision is irresponsible and it endangers the lives of our citizens. That is a mistaken characterization. Every Senator supported the Senate's reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act last July when it passed the Senate unanimously. Last Friday, 47 of us said the House-Senate conference report is not yet good enough. Before we make the PATRIOT Act permanent, we must make it right. The PATRIOT Act that we passed 4 years ago, which I supported, gave the Federal Government unprecedented powers to conduct surveillance on American citizens and demand information about their private activities, about their personal lives. We passed the PATRIOT Act hastily in the Senate 4 years ago, too hastily in retrospect. We passed it when my caucus was in the majority. So we, and I, were responsible for that haste. It seemed necessary in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. One important consideration for this Senator, then, when we voted for the PATRIOT Act was that it would sunset in 4 years, and this Congress would take the time to review it carefully and modify it as necessary to assure the proper balance between combating terrorism and protecting the privacy of innocent Americans. As I said 5 months ago, the Senate passed unanimously our reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act with important changes to protect constitutional rights of innocent American citizens.…”