Angie Craig: “let me, for a moment, touch on something I think is important. This issue has spread beyond these walls and beyond this…”

“let me, for a moment, touch on something I think is important. This issue has spread beyond these walls and beyond this building. The Idaho Legislature, my legislature in Idaho, by a resolution, a house joint memorial and a senate joint memorial to the Congress, asked that we support the SAFE Act. The SAFE Act was the passage of amendments that the Senate Judiciary Committee incorporated within our version of the reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act that passed this body unanimously. From the beginning, those of us who have concerns about PATRIOT have had an uphill battle. Practically before the ink was dry on our bill-- and certainly well before any committee had reviewed it--we faced a veto recommendation. Before they even read our reform proposals, some of PATRIOT's defenders charged us with wanting to repeal the law and do away with all the tools it provided law enforcement to protect our country against terrorism. Those charges were not true when we began, and they're not true today. We are not trying to undo PATRIOT. If some Senators still believe that, well, the rest of the country does not. Most of PATRIOT isn't even at issue today--just a small part of the law is up for renewal. Of that small part, we are only focusing on a few controversial and very important provisions. And even for those few provisions in the small part of the law up for renewal, we are asking for modest checks and balances, not repeal.…”