Jon Kyl: “let me respond to the minority leader and to the question asked of me. The words that the minority leader used were…”

“let me respond to the minority leader and to the question asked of me. The words that the minority leader used were ``killed the PATRIOT Act.'' I don't suggest that this reflects his view that the PATRIOT Act should not exist. I want to be very clear about that, just as I am sure the question posed to me by the Senator from Illinois doesn't mean to suggest that my objecting to a 3-month extension means that I don't want the PATRIOT Act to exist. I have made it crystal clear in all of my comments before today that that is precisely what I want to see--if not the PATRIOT Act in its existing form, until December 31, in the modified form as developed in conference between the House and Senate. I think we can both agree that we understand that the PATRIOT Act is a good thing and indeed it is a good thing whether in the existing form or in the form that came out of conference committee. Let me address that for a moment. As we know, in the Senate, we passed it out unanimously--unanimously--and it is difficult for me to see why Members of the other side of the Chamber are proud of having filibustered it so it cannot come up--don't use the word ``killed it''--having prevented it from coming to a vote when, by everyone's agreement, about 80 percent of what the Senate passed unanimously ended up in the final version of the conference committee report. By 80 percent, I mean of the contentious issues. Most of the bill was not contentious.…”