Orrin Hatch: “I do not disagree with my two distinguished colleagues on that side that this might be a useful provision. After all, I…”

“I do not disagree with my two distinguished colleagues on that side that this might be a useful provision. After all, I wrote it, and we put it in the Senate bill. I drafted the multipoint language in the Senate bill. However, since that time, some have raised, in their eyes, serious questions as to whether this expanded authority to wiretap American citizens and others is necessary. Because of that, we have worked out this bill through a long series of meetings for over a year, culminating Monday night in a conference where we put everything in this bill we could possibly get into it. We brought it very close to what the original Senate bill was. I think it is a darned good bill. We could not get the other side to agree on this provision. It comes down to whether we want a bill or we do not. To this end, because of that, then I insisted we at least put in a study, a balanced study to look at the excesses of law enforcement with regard to wiretapping and the needs of law enforcement with regard to wiretapping and the applications of it. The distinguished Senator from Connecticut and I both understand how important it is, and so does, of course, the ranking Democrat on the committee. We will require the Justice Department to review its law enforcement surveillance needs and report back to Congress.”