Political Quotes

“I thank the Chair. Madam President, I rise in opposition to the amendment of Senator Paul, No. 365. This amendment would effectively wipe out a critical tool used against terrorists and drug traffickers. I want to explain exactly what these suspicious activities reports are and why they are so essential to the FBI and other law enforcement people. First of all, who uses them? FBI, organized crime units, drug trafficking task forces, border security, Secret Service, State and local police, and the intelligence community all use these SARs. Second, what are they used for? There was a report from the GAO in 2009 which said the following: How are SARs used? They gave a number of examples: The FBI includes SAR data in its Investigative Data Warehouse to identify: financial patterns associated with money laundering, bank fraud, and other aberrant financial activities. Second, Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force's Fusion Center combines SAR data with other data to: produce comprehensive integrated intelligence products and charts. Third, the IRS uses SARs to identify: financial crimes, including individual and corporate tax frauds and terrorist activities. We received a letter just today from the Attorney General of the United States strongly opposing this amendment of Senator Paul, and this is what the Attorney General says: SARs are a critical tool for our national security and law enforcement professionals.…”