Chuck Schumer: “first I want to thank both my colleagues from Pennsylvania and from Vermont for their fine efforts on this legislation.…”

“first I want to thank both my colleagues from Pennsylvania and from Vermont for their fine efforts on this legislation. I went to bed last night unsure of how to vote on this legislation. I want to give a lot of credit to my colleague from Pennsylvania. This is a significant improvement over present law. It is a significant improvement over the House bill and comes a lot closer to the Senate bill than many are giving it credit for. On the other hand, even before last night, I had real doubts that we did not correct the formula in terms of distributing aid which definitely hurts my State of New York. But as I said, I went to bed undecided. Today's revelation that the Government listened in on thousands of phone conversations without getting a warrant is shocking and has greatly influenced my vote. If this Government will discard a law that has worked well for over 30 years, without a whit of discussion or notice, then for sure we better be certain that we have safeguards on that Government. The balance between security and liberty is a delicate one, and there is great room for disagreement as to where that ought to come down. I do not question the motives of anybody. I tend to be fairly hawkish on these types of things, as my colleagues know. But there is one thing for sure: there ought to be discussion, there ought to be debate. Whenever there is discussion and debate, we usually come out right, and that is true on the wiretap law. When J.…”