Patrick Leahy: “as one of the authors of the original USA PATRIOT Act, as someone who voted to reauthorize an improved version of the…”

“as one of the authors of the original USA PATRIOT Act, as someone who voted to reauthorize an improved version of the act back in July 2005, and as an American concerned with our security, I am glad that we are making progress, but I have some misgivings about the bill being considered today. I will vote to proceed and hope there is an opportunity to improve the bill and the PATRIOT Act reauthorization even further. I believe that the PATRIOT Act provides important and valuable tools for the protection of Americans from terrorism. These matters should be governed by law and not by whim. Legislative action should be the clear and unambiguous legal footing for Government powers. I am glad that the sunsets that Congressman Armey and I insisted be included in the 2001 act brought about reconsideration and some refinement of the powers authorized in that measure. Those sunsets contributed to congressional oversight. Without them I expect the Bush administration would have stonewalled our requests for information and for review of the way they were implementing the statute. The sunsets were the reason we have been going through a review and renewal process over the last few months. Now the challenge to Congress is to provide the effective oversight that will be needed in the days ahead and to ensure that there is effective court review of actions that affect the rights of Americans.…”