Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I want to thank Chairman Leahy for his excellent remarks. Let me simply say, to move forward without amendments surrenders the constitutional obligations Senators have to the American people. This issue is important, it is complicated, and the American people deserve to have an opportunity for some real amendments to make sure that, at the end of the day, we have policies that keep our people safe and protect our liberties. I see my friend from Kentucky. He is joined by his colleague from Utah Senator Lee, Senator Leahy, and me. Our bipartisan coalition is dedicated to essentially one mission: We think the country deserves a Senate that is very tough on terrorists. We don't take a backseat to anybody in terms of fighting terrorists. What we are opposed to is an end run on our sacred Constitution. Right now, with the changes in communication systems around the world and communication systems increasingly becoming globally interconnected, we have more and more law-abiding Americans swept up in searches under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. We want to fight terrorists, but the law allows the government to target foreigners to acquire foreign intelligence information, which basically means anything related to the conduct of foreign affairs.…”