Political Quotes

“First let me address Senator Feingold. He is correct about the misstatement I made this morning. I do recall making this statement that the Feinstein amendment would apply generally to the section of law rather than just S. 113. The Senator from Wisconsin is correct. What I said was in error. It does not detract from my primary argument, but that is correct, and I appreciate him pointing that out. I wish to respond to the three primary arguments we have heard. First of all, Senator Leahy primarily was making the point that we should see if the Patriot Act is working before we make the changes that Senator Schumer and I and others are trying to make. First, I note that the vote in the Judiciary Committee was 16 to 0. It was unanimous. I appreciate the bipartisan support from people such as Senator Leahy and would note that we have had that kind of bipartisan support from the very day that Senator--in fact, 2 years ago it was Schumer-Kyl, now it is Kyl-Schumer, for obvious reasons. Secondly, this has nothing to do with the PATRIOT Act. The FISA law was put into effect in 1978, I believe it was. So this is a law that has been in effect for a long time. The problem with it is that a significant change has occurred on the international stage.”