Political Quotes

“I rise this evening to ask that the House retain its oversight authority by inserting 4-year sunsets into H.R. 3199. In the past year, we have asked the Department of Justice how it is using the authority granted to it under the PATRIOT Act. Some of our questions simply went unanswered. Other questions were rebuffed, and we were told that the information was classified. And still others were avoided by telling us that the information simply was not available. However, all of that changed in April of this year when the Justice Department realized that a straight reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act would not happen without serious answers to our reasonable questions. Suddenly, numbers and examples were no longer unavailable. Suddenly, the information we had long been seeking was provided. I have no doubt that if 16 provisions of the law were not scheduled to sunset at the end of this year, we would still have little information about how these authorities have been used. Members of the majority have stressed today that the Committee on the Judiciary has held 12 PATRIOT Act hearings in recent months. That extensive inquiry would not have occurred had the sunsets in the law not been in place. For these reasons, we should reinstate the sunsets for an additional 4 years. All 16 of the sunsets that were contained in the original law would be reinserted through this motion to recommit. The FBI will still have all the powers that the bill gives it.…”