Zoe Lofgren: “having had a chance to review the bill before us, I find that I must support the measure. I will say this is not a…”

“having had a chance to review the bill before us, I find that I must support the measure. I will say this is not a perfect bill. It is not as thoughtful as the Committee on the Judiciary product, although there is much that we did work on in the bill; but it is better than what the House passed last week. I have been an admirer of the committee chairman's insistence on regular order in the House, and I think that had he been successful in his quest for regular order on this bill, we would have an even better product than we do. I would also like to note, however, that there has been a lot of loose language among people who oppose this bill. And people are perfectly free to disagree with it, but it is important that we not be incorrect about what is actually in the bill. I actually heard someone say that the bill would provide for indefinite incarceration on a mere suspicion by the Attorney General. That is simply not the case. The Attorney General may detain persons, but he has to certify, and he has to have reasonable grounds to believe that the individual is involved in terrorism, and that decision is reviewable by a court. So that is real. To say it is mere suspicion and indefinite is certainly not the case; and of course, there is a 7-day limit where a court would take a look at the case.”