Jon Kyl: “I wish to speak for a moment, first of all, about the process we are going through and then about the substance of a…”

“I wish to speak for a moment, first of all, about the process we are going through and then about the substance of a couple of amendments that our colleague from Wisconsin would have liked to have introduced and have a vote on it with respect to the PATRIOT Act. Our constituents might be wondering why we are on the floor of the Senate on this Thursday afternoon discussing the PATRIOT Act. After all, haven't we passed it? Of course, the answer is, in a sense, we have passed it now several times. But there are colleagues on the other side of the aisle who have decided that rather than let the will of the Senate be carried out with adoption of the PATRIOT Act so this bill can be sent to the President so he can then sign it, thus reauthorizing the act for another 4 years and giving the tools to fight terrorism to our intelligence and law enforcement officials that, rather, they are going to make us comply with all of the procedural technicalities which they can throw in our way which accomplishes absolutely nothing but requires us to take several more days to finish the process. What can be gained from this? Nothing at all except that we waste more time thus making it more likely that we will not have time to do other business of the Senate, especially as it gets toward adjournment later on in the year.…”