Patrick Leahy: “Let me ask the distinguished majority leader, is it not a fact that these public, spirited telephone company owners are…”

“Let me ask the distinguished majority leader, is it not a fact that these public, spirited telephone company owners are threatening to turn off wiretaps, according to the press accounts, that have been legally ordered through search warrants because the U.S. Government has failed to pay them millions of dollars, and does not pay them the millions of dollars? I just wonder if any of the legislation we are talking about might be mandating our own Government to pay the bills for the wiretaps. I ask that only because it seems this public spiritedness goes one way if they want to be immunized or the administration wants to be immunized from anybody asking them questions, but it goes a different way if it comes down to the question of getting paid.”