Chris Sununu: “I want to be courteous to my colleagues who wish also to speak, so I will briefly address a couple of the points raised.…”

“I want to be courteous to my colleagues who wish also to speak, so I will briefly address a couple of the points raised. First, I never suggested that the ability, allowed under the conference report, to hire a lawyer to challenge an NSL is an improvement. I am for that. I don't know that is some great show of benevolence on the part of the Federal Government that now for the first time you will actually be allowed to contact a lawyer if you are served with a national security letter. So I appreciate that. But this is about much more than that simple fact. Judicial review is important. But to have a meaningful judicial review you have to have at least a threshold, that the recipient of a NSL may actually be able to achieve. I suggest that the showing of oppressive or abusive behavior by the Federal Government, the showing of bad faith, is simply too high a threshold to make that judicial review process meaningful. Finally, I come back to the suggestion that if this bill fails on cloture, we will not have a bill, and portions of the PATRIOT Act and the lone wolf provision will expire. I do not take that to mean that the Senator from Pennsylvania will not support a 3-month extension. I hope and I believe that he would in such an event.…”