Political Quotes

“Madam President, although the PATRIOT Act is not a perfect law, it provides our intelligence and law enforcement communities with crucial tools to keep our homeland safe and thwart terrorism. While I am disappointed we were not able to include any of the sensible oversight and civil liberties protections included in the bill reported by the Judiciary Committee with bipartisan support, I strongly support the Senate's effort to ensure that these important authorities do not expire. The raid that killed Osama bin Laden also yielded an enormous amount of new information that has spurred dozens of investigations yielding new leads every day. Without the PATRIOT Act, investigators would not have the tools they need to follow these new leads and disrupt terrorist plots, putting our national security at risk. Finally, we have worked expeditiously to pass this legislation to reauthorize these critical intelligence tools. If for some reason this bill is not enacted before May 27 and there is a brief lapse in the authorities, there should be no doubt that it is Congress's intent that this bill reauthorizes the authorities in their current form and does so until June 2015. How much time remains, Madam President? The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is 1 minute 22 seconds.”