Patrick Leahy: “the PATRIOT Act reauthorization legislation that the Senate may vote on this week still has serious flaws and troubling…”

“the PATRIOT Act reauthorization legislation that the Senate may vote on this week still has serious flaws and troubling omissions. I have spent several months working closely with Members from both parties in an attempt to improve these defects. Even after the Bush administration and congressional Republicans hijacked the House-Senate conference, I tried to get this measure back on the right track. Working with a bipartisan group of Senators, we were able to achieve some improvements. I regret that the final package is not better and that the intransigence of the administration has prevented a better bill with better protections for the American people. I remain committed to working to provide the tools that we need to protect the American people. That includes working to provide the oversight and checks needed on the uses of Government power and to improve the current reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act. I am therefore pleased to join Senator Specter, Senator Sununu, Senator Craig, Senator Feingold, and others in introducing a bill to improve the reauthorization legislation in several important respects. Most importantly, the Specter-Leahy bill corrects one of the most egregious ``police state'' provisions regarding gag orders. The Bush- Cheney administration used the last round of discussions with Republican Senators to make the gag order provisions worse, in my view, by forbidding any court challenge for 1 year.…”