Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this bill. I was opposed to the Patriot Act in 2001, and do not believe now that it is a good idea to extend it. The Fourth Amendment is rather clear. It says that we should be secure in our papers, our persons, our homes, and our effects; and, that if warrants are to be issued, we have to do it with probable cause, and describe in particular the places, the people, and the things that we are going to look at. I think what has happened, though, over the years has been that we have diluted the Fourth Amendment. It was greatly diluted in 2001, but it started a lot earlier than that. When the FISA law was originally written in 1978, that really introduced the notion that the Fourth Amendment was relative and not absolute. Later on, it was further weakened in 1998, and then of course in 2001. I think our reaction to the horrors of 9/11--we can understand the concern and the fear that was developed, but I think the reaction took us in the wrong direction, because the assumption was made of course that we weren't spending enough money on surveillance. Even though then our intelligence agencies received $40 billion, that didn't give us the right information. So now we are spending $80 billion. But it also looks like the conclusion was that the American people had too much privacy, and if we undermine the American people's privacy, somehow or another we are going to be safer.…”