Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the historical account that was just delivered by my colleague on the Judiciary Committee, former Chairman Sensenbrenner, and I have abundant respect and admiration for him and his motives and his desire to protect the civil rights that we all hold dear. But I find it disturbing that today we're going to start out on a 9\1/2\-hour debate on a meaningless, redundant measure that simply instructs Congress and its committees to review regulations and we could be spending that time dealing with such a very important, serious issue such as reauthorization of this so- called Patriot Act. This bill is too serious, it's too important, to be reauthorized without any hearings, no markups, no opportunity for amendments. I was glad to be one of the true patriots to vote against this measure when it was brought to the floor yesterday on a suspension of the rules without due consideration by our Judiciary Committee. There is bipartisan consensus that these provisions need some improvement--roving wiretaps, the lone wolf provisions, especially business records. While the threat of terrorism is real and law enforcement must have the right tools to protect Americans, any counterterrorism measure must have a solid constitutional footing and respect the privacy and civil liberties of the American people.…”