On the recordFebruary 8, 2011
A few minutes ago, the distinguished gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich) called for not reauthorizing temporarily three expiring provisions of the Patriot Act, allegedly because the FBI had found civil liberties violations. In his 1-minute address, the gentleman from Ohio unfortunately missed the point. He used the law on national security letters to show abuses of the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act did not authorize national security letters. Those letters were authorized in 1986 under legislation sponsored by the Senator from Vermont, Mr. Leahy, who opposes the Patriot Act and always has, but it was his national security letter authorization that the abuses were contained in. I would hope as we debate the temporary reauthorization of three expiring provisions of the Patriot Act that we not paint that act with a broad brush, but if there are specific abuses of these three expiring provisions, we should confine the debate to them.
