Patrick Leahy

I really wanted to be here to introduce Mark Lippert.

The question is not whether granting the government authority makes us incrementally safer, but whether the additional safety is worth the sacrifice in terms of individual privacy, personal liberty, and public trust.

When you talk about 9/11, one of the biggest problems there is that we had the information, it would have prevented 9/11.

The Section 215 program contributed to only a few of those cases and was not essential to preventing any terrorist attacks.

We have to look at what are adequate safeguards, especially when we are dealing with an agency that did not have adequate enough safeguards.

The executive branch claims about the effectiveness of Section 215 phone records are overblown, even misleading

A number of us have been trying to reform that.

Wasn't that one of the things that Senator Graham and his review committee found, that was the sharing?

I have concluded that this phone records program is not uniquely valuable enough to justify the massive intrusion on Americans' privacy.

Senator Durbin and I have been fighting to impose additional safeguards on this controversial authority for years.

I think Americans across the political spectrum want us to have this debate and want to have a clearer understanding of what is going on.

I strongly support that proposal.

Anyone who knows this nominee appreciates that he is an excellent choice to lead the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice.

If I may take one moment while the distinguished leader is here. I wish to commend Senator Reid for his cooperation. He has worked very hard to bring this together. We had a very complex and very extensive immigration bill, with 300…

No issue is more important to the quality of patents overall and to solving the issues that come before us today than solving that problem.

We are encouraged by the legislation introduced by Senators Leahy and Lee which will increase transparency by shedding light on the patent marketplace.

Our task, I think, is clear but not easy, which is to provide relief to small businesses and start-ups that are innocent end users without weakening the economic value of U.S. patents.

In my view, strengthening the American patent system begins with ensuring that we provide full funding for the Patent and Trademark Office and for the federal courts.

We are all about protecting innovation in America, Mr. Chairman, but that does not mean that small businesses have to be pursued in a very predatory, very threatening way, and it needs to change.

The legislation Senator Lee and I introduced targets those abuses by saying that it is a deceptive trade practice to send these misleading letters.

Taken together with other legislation by Senators Cornyn and Grassley and Senator Hatch, we believe we have the tools for the comprehensive bill that we need to address this problem.

Kudos to Senators Leahy and Lee for this provision.

We also support your bill's role for the Federal Trade Commission as an enforcement agency.

Last Congress, Members of this Committee and the Congress came together and passed common sense, bipartisan--Democrats and Republicans working together--reform to modernize our patent system.

I have heard from an increasing number of businesses in Vermont and across the country that are being targeted by so-called patent trolls.