Tom Feeney: “Mr. Chairman, first, I want to rise to express a lot of empathy and sympathy with the concerns expressed on the Otter…”

“Mr. Chairman, first, I want to rise to express a lot of empathy and sympathy with the concerns expressed on the Otter amendment. I think that they are very legitimate questions. I think some of the concerns about the rapidity with which the PATRIOT I Act was passed in the aftermath of a huge American historic tragedy are legitimate concerns. But the rapidity with which we are passing this amendment in some ways reflects the problems that some of the proponents of the amendment are suggesting the original PATRIOT Act is guilty of. I will tell my colleagues that it is important to have deliberation and thoughtfulness as we go through the process of striking a new balance. I think all of us will recognize that the last time the mainland of the United States was attacked by a foreign power before September 11 was in 1812. All of us here are civil libertarians, but defining the balance between order and liberty is a constant struggle with new technologies, with new challenges. When was the last time that we as Americans before September 11 literally thought about the terror of a potential biological, chemical, nuclear attack from a foreign power? This is a whole new set of balancing that we have to do within the great framework that the founders provided us in the Constitution.”