Hon. Michael G. Oxley: “anyone who was serving in Congress on September 11, 2001, will never forget the day. We watched television in horror as…”

“anyone who was serving in Congress on September 11, 2001, will never forget the day. We watched television in horror as the World Trade Center collapsed, and then were rushed out of the U.S. Capitol when Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. President Bush immediately challenged us to provide U.S. citizens with protections against the new threat of worldwide terrorism, and within weeks we responded with the USA PATRIOT Act. As Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, I was proud to help author the antiterrorist financing provisions in the Act. My committee has held numerous oversight hearings on the implementation of the provisions since then. I can report progress. More than $147 million in assets have been frozen and roughly $65 million seized since 9/11. The U.S. has broken up suspected terrorist financing networks, including one in my home state of Ohio. Our terrorist financing tools were further augmented by the intelligence reform act approved in the wake of the 9/11 Commission report. As a former FBI agent, I have found other parts of the PATRIOT Act just as vital in the defense of our freedoms. As we have been reminded by the two rounds of bombings in London, the reality of terrorism remains very much with us. The toll that these attacks take is so terrible that the only acceptable approach is to prevent them in the first place. To that end, today we are working to make permanent 14 of the 16 expiring provisions of the PATRIOT Act.…”