Political Quotes

“I stand today strongly opposed to the Conference Report on H.R. 2417, the Intelligence Authorization Act for FY 2004. Although the House of Representatives recently voted in a bi-partisan and overwhelming fashion to repeal Section 213 of the PATRIOT Act, a provision that threatens Americans' rights by allowing for "sneak and peak searches", it appears the administration is poised to move ahead with further actions that endanger civil liberties by slipping an expanded PATRIOT Act power in the Intelligence Conference Report. The hidden measure would significantly expand the FBI's power to acquire financial records without judicial oversight from car dealers, pawnbrokers, travel agencies, and many other businesses. Traditional financial institutions like banks and credit unions are already subject to such demands, but this dramatic expansion of government authority will mean that records created by average citizens who purchase cars, plan vacations, or buy gifts will be subject to government seizure and analysis without the important requirements of probable cause or judicial review. This provision initially appeared in a leaked draft of so-called "PATRIOT II", a proposal the American public and Members on both sides of the aisle in the House and Senate publicly rejected. It is now clear the administration's strategy is to pass PATRIOT II in separate pieces with little public debate and surreptitiously attached to other legislation.”