I thank the gentleman for yielding. I rise in opposition to this extension of the expiring provisions of the Patriot Act and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act. I cannot support this extension when the House has done…

I first want to note that this is our first Subcommittee hearing of the 112th Congress and your first as Chairman.

It is an unprecedented attack on women, on families, on their rights under the Constitution.

You are just trying to have your cake and eat it too, because either a tax exemption is a government subsidy or it is not.

I am sorry. I regret that she was denied permission to testify.

To say that the minority could have Ms. Norton as the witness to talk about D.C. is to say that we couldn't talk about the basic provisions of the bill.

I hope the Republicans as a whole don't go along with that; who knows.

Obviously, we need high speed rail.

We should be able to go ahead with that rapidly.

You are not going to get private sector investment on a long term project if you have very uneven public sector involvement.

How can we get the private sector to cooperate with the public sector, because neither is going to do it alone?