Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, a few minutes ago, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the gentleman from Texas, yielded the Democrats 2 additional minutes, and asked for a copy of the motion to recommit so that we could look at it. The gentleman extended that offer in good faith. We received a copy of this motion to recommit at the time the Clerk started reading it, and our offer of good faith was responded to with an attempted surprise. Now, the underlying bill, H.R. 514, is very simple. All it does is extend the authorizations that are about ready to expire until December 8. It doesn't add to the Patriot Act and the Terrorism Prevention Act. It does not subtract from it. It gives the Judiciary Committee the time to do the oversight, which is exactly the same thing that I did when I was the chairman the last time the sunset expired. But there is something else in here that I think is very important, and that is that there is a provision that would cause the courts to second-guess themselves every time a national security action asked them for a business record order. And rather than expediting the request to seek information on terrorists, this motion to recommit tells the court to expedite civil lawsuits against the United States Government to get money damages under a provision that is in the Patriot Act, and that tips it all on its head.…”