Patrick Leahy: “The money will still be appropriated. Simply authorizing does not appropriate money. I don't want to be in a position…”

“The money will still be appropriated. Simply authorizing does not appropriate money. I don't want to be in a position where the Committee on Appropriations or somebody says we are not authorized. The distinguished Senator could easily say ``zero.'' I don't want them to say it is a great idea but they cannot authorize it. We just agreed to an amendment that makes it a crime that already exists and makes it a misdemeanor. The Senator from Utah supports that. This is for prevention of crimes and to make sure they can be prosecuted. They are not being prosecuted. The Senator mentions the Jack Abramoff case. We know that is ongoing, and there were lots of people who hoped they could wait out the statute of limitations on that bad boy. Under this, they will not. I suggest we make these retroactive. I am suggesting we need enough time to investigate. And the FBI has had to divert so much money--first the hundreds of millions lost because they screwed up on the computer system, and they have had to divert a lot more from it. If they want to come up here and tell us they don't need this, fine. I haven't heard that from the Department of Justice at all. I have heard from the Inspector General that these investigations have suddenly gone way down in the last 4 years. Maybe there has been a great new wave of morality in this country and we have only seen the most egregious cases. I believe in the redemption of everyone, but I am not sure it happens all at once.”