Harry Reid: “As I explained, and it has been talked about for some time, the PATRIOT Act in its present form is not something that…”

“As I explained, and it has been talked about for some time, the PATRIOT Act in its present form is not something that can muster the parliamentary procedure to get through the Senate. As has been indicated, cloture was not invoked on this bill. The bill is still before the Senate. The reason being, a bipartisan group of Senators believes the bill is bad. I have given a number of reasons it is bad. These should be corrected. The bill in its present form is not good. The law that is now in effect, we have agreed that there should be a 3- month extension on it. It is a bipartisan group of Senators who have agreed to that. So I say to my friend from New Hampshire, it is the considered opinion of this Senator that if this goes down, based on what the President said this morning, if this bill is not in effect for one day, the country can't afford that and, therefore, I think if he believes what he said, then he should agree to the 3-month extension.”