Thomas Massie: “I am here today because last night, at midnight, a wonderful thing happened. In what seems like a constant flow, a tide…”

“I am here today because last night, at midnight, a wonderful thing happened. In what seems like a constant flow, a tide that has been washing away our liberties since the founding of this country, we experienced something unique. The tide reversed, thanks to one Senator, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, and now, we have some of our civil liberties restored. If only but for a brief second in history, they are restored. It may register only as an eddy current, but clearly, we changed the tide last night. Now, what happened? The PATRIOT Act expired. How does a law expire, do you say? Why do we allow them to expire? It is because, when we enact laws, we know that we don't have the foresight to see how they will be carried out. We don't know everything that is going to happen as time transpires. It is important that we revisit these laws. In this case, this law expired. I would like to pretend that, if I were here when the PATRIOT Act passed after the attacks on our country, that I wouldn't have voted for it, but I can't say that. I am not going to pass judgment on my colleagues that were here when it did pass. I can barely imagine the incredible pressure they were under from their constituents, from everybody, to do something--to do something to protect our country, and so they passed the PATRIOT Act. I don't blame them. I wasn't here. I might have done the same thing. We have new facts today, so we revisit this law; we revisit the PATRIOT Act. What are the new facts?…”