John Cornyn: “I rise to speak about the PATRIOT Act, a subject which has been much misunderstood. I think some of the misunderstanding…”

“I rise to speak about the PATRIOT Act, a subject which has been much misunderstood. I think some of the misunderstanding has been perhaps just from lack of information or has been misinformation that has been spun in an effort to confuse people and perhaps even to scare people about what is in this important legislation. Indeed, we are all committed to making sure not only that our Nation is secure, and I believe the PATRIOT Act has contributed tremendously to improving the security of the United States of America, but at the same time we have a fundamental commitment in this country to civil liberties. I believe, and I think the American people believe, the Founders of this country believed firmly that we can have both our national security and our civil liberties. Particularly, in a time of war such as we are in now, while there will be some tension, we need not sacrifice our civil liberties.”