Political Quotes

“today's vote to extend expiring provisions of the so-called PATRIOT Act is not the first time Congress has extended the sunset provisions, nor will it be the last. In 2006, the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act was passed and, among other things, extended until December 2009 the three provisions we are discussing today. When those provisions were set to expire, a 3-month extension was included in the Department of Defense Appropriations Act. Three months later, Congress passed a 1-year extension until February 2011. As that deadline loomed, and without sufficient time to have a real debate, we passed the extension that expires at midnight tonight. Immediately after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, it may have been understandable that our emotions made it unlikely that we would have a rationale and deliberative debate about the PATRIOT Act. But at the time, as I voted against the bill, I said on the House floor that ``the saving grace here is that the sunset provision forces us to come back and to look at these issues again when heads are cooler and when we are not in the heat of battle.'' But that hasn't happened. Each time a sunset date nears, we hear a lot of highly charged rhetoric from Members in both parties and in both Chambers of Congress about how devastating it will be to our national security if we let the PATRIOT Act expire.…”