John Kerry: “I want to make two very quick points. One, as a former prosecutor, I am sympathetic to the comments of the Senator from…”

“I want to make two very quick points. One, as a former prosecutor, I am sympathetic to the comments of the Senator from Pennsylvania. I think all of us ought to be respectful of what the Senator from Wisconsin has been talking about this evening. I will vote for the bill. I am particularly sensitive to what the majority leader has said about the delicacy and the balance. Even within that delicacy, there are some very legitimate concerns. It is my hope that when this goes to conference, some of the positions of the House will be thought about carefully and respected and that the Senate may even be able to improve what we have by taking those into account. The second point is that there is within this legislation for the first time a very significant effort on money laundering. I will say to my colleagues that of all the weapons in this war and for all of our might militarily, the most significant efforts to ferret out and stop terrorists are going to come from the combination of information, intelligence that we gather and process, and from our ability to take unconventional steps, particularly those such as the money-laundering measures.”