Chuck Schumer: “This is a pretty sad day in this Chamber. We are going to have a unanimous vote for this bill. The unanimity speaks to…”

“This is a pretty sad day in this Chamber. We are going to have a unanimous vote for this bill. The unanimity speaks to the fact that we have put together a series of noncontroversial cats and dogs that do a little but not what we should do against terrorism. I just hope that some of the families of people who lost their lives in Oklahoma City, on TWA Flight 800, in Atlanta, are not watching today because we know that they want us to do all we can to fight terrorism. We know that law enforcement has told us they need multipoint wiretaps and taggants, and we know that in an act that some would say is politics and others would call much worse, those on the other side took those out. They were unable to just have the guts to say, ``We do not believe in those.'' Many on the other side are doing what they think is right. Some on the other side do not have the guts to admit that they have eviscerated what we should do about terrorism and instead put up a series of smokescreen proposals, none of which are objectionable but only one of which does anything real to fight terrorism, and that would have passed here within the next few months anyway in terms of airport security.”