Joe Biden: “What I would like to speak to in an indirect way covers this. We have had several votes on wiretaps, and I know people…”

“What I would like to speak to in an indirect way covers this. We have had several votes on wiretaps, and I know people are asking why am I introducing the other wiretap provision that was taken out of the Senate bill. The reason I am is I refuse to believe that, if you all hear this enough, you will not eventually decide to do the right thing on this. The provision that I have proposed is not original with me. It was in the Senate bill that we passed. The provision would add a number--the bill we have before us, the conference report--would add a number of terrorism-related offenses to the law. I will go into those in a minute. What I have sent to the desk, if adopted, would instruct the conferees to add the same number of offenses that we are adding to the bill, to the law, to those categories of things for which the Government, with probable cause, can get a wiretap. It was in the Senate bill as introduced by Senators Hatch and Dole. It was part of the terrorism bill reported out of Representative Hyde's Judiciary Committee. Unfortunately, by the time the bill had made it to the House, the provision was dropped.”