Political Quotes

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this motion to concur in the Senate amendment, which would extend for a period of 1 year the sunset of three provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act. I very much regret that we have to be here today in this situation and that I have to oppose this legislation. I understand we are facing a deadline of this weekend, but I also believe that we have an obligation to do more than punt. That is effectively what we are doing today. We are punting this question to the next Congress. Both the House and the Senate have worked hard to examine not just these three provisions, but the entire PATRIOT Act, and to craft legislation that would improve its effectiveness, and that would better protect the civil liberties of all Americans. That process should be allowed to continue. Today, with this vote, that process effectively ends. The PATRIOT Act was passed at a time of panic, and in an extremely rushed manner. Many of its provisions were not well thought out, which is why Congress decided that certain parts of the PATRIOT Act should be enacted on a temporary basis so that we could revisit them after we had time to see how they worked. The original passage of the bill in 2001 was hijacked at the last minute in a way that should have stood as an embarrassment to the House. The Judiciary Committee back then reported the bill unanimously, with support from the most conservative to the most liberal members.…”