Patrick Leahy

I think that is why you have a lot of Americans on the right and left who are worried about intrusive and unchecked government surveillance.

Congress has seized the initiative here.

Also the bill I introduced with Senators Cardin and Kaufman include new audits on Section 215 orders for tangible things in the use of national security letters--trace devices.

The bill I introduced this week, the USA Patriot Act Sunset Extension Act has a 4-year sunset in all the three expiring Patriot Act provisions similar to what we did in 2001 and again in 2005/06 reauthorization.

I mean, your letter says you support oversight.

We can safely say those fears did not materialize.

I do believe that this committee after 9/11 fulfilled its responsibility by carefully scrutinizing every single word in it to make sure that there were no abuses of constitutional rights of our citizens.

I press hard to shine a light on the misuse, there has been a misuse to the State Secret privilege.

I worked to ensure that the USA Patriot Act included oversight.

They didn't follow the statute. It is one thing to talk about oversight and all that and the reauthorization, but the statute is not followed and it is a concern.

We had a former longest serving member of this committee, the late Senator Ted Kennedy was eight or nine or ten times refused to go on one of the, an airplane or a flight he had been taking for 40 years back to Boston because he somehow is…

In the 2006 USA Patriot Act Reauthorization, we required, and I helped write this, the Attorney General to adopt procedures to minimize retention and improper dissemination of private information.

We all want to be safe. We all want to catch criminals. That is not the issue.

I don't believe that subsequent events have proven that there have been any abuses of the Act to date.

I introduced a bill with Senators Cardin and Kaufman that aims to strike the kind of balance the administration urges.

They are unequivocal about the administration's position that we are still at war with Al Queda and that these provisions should be reauthorized because they are important tools in this war and to make America safe.

The issue though is each one of us is our own privacy.

I would think as technology advances and more and more personal information is available, isn't it reasonable to require the government to have to at least prove the things that it is seeking are relevant in terrorism investigation and…

Given the misuse of the NSL authority that was seen in the Inspector General's 2007 report, I thought it was time to take another look at the authority.

It is only fair and common sense and reasonable that we have at our disposal abilities that have existed for decades to pursue drug dealers and mobsters.

I commend the Attorney General, I commend him very highly for working with us and shaping these approved policies and procedures.

I also know the President's and the Attorney General's emphasis on accountability and checks and balances and their willingness to consider additional ideas.

I worked with Senator Specter and we were able to expand public transparency in congressional oversight--but in the end several important checks and balances were not included in the final version.

I thank everybody for being here.

I don't think there's anything to be ashamed about that.