Kent Conrad: “We are on the Budget Reconciliation Act. But people have come to the floor, as is their right, to discuss other issues.…”

“We are on the Budget Reconciliation Act. But people have come to the floor, as is their right, to discuss other issues. Now we have gotten into a discussion of the PATRIOT Act. I have great respect for the chairman of the Budget Committee, but I must say on this issue I profoundly disagree. The Senator from New Hampshire says there is a majority in the Senate who support the PATRIOT Act provisions that have come back from conference committee. That is true. It is also true that earlier this year on a unanimous vote the Senate version of the PATRIOT Act was approved. The House had very different provisions, and when the conference between the House and the Senate was concluded, they came back with PATRIOT Act provisions that could not command the votes necessary to pass the PATRIOT Act. That is a fact. There are not sufficient votes to pass the version of the PATRIOT Act that came back from the conference between the House and the Senate, and on a bipartisan basis--there were those who supported that version of the PATRIOT Act and on a bipartisan basis there were votes against that version of the PATRIOT Act. So let's be very clear. Now we may face a circumstance in which the PATRIOT Act would fail, would not be extended. It is still alive today. It is alive until the 31st of this month, so all the talk that we killed the PATRIOT Act--no, the PATRIOT Act has not been killed. The PATRIOT Act is still in force.…”