On the recordFebruary 8, 2011
Mr. Speaker, there has been a lot said about national security letters. The authority for them was made permanent in 2006. It is not a part of this bill, so we ought to completely forget about the complaints about national security letters. What I will say is that in the 2006 reauthorization of the Patriot Act there were provisions in it to give recipients of a national security letter the right to obtain judicial review; and I am proud of that fact because I think whatever constitutional infirmities there were in this part of the Patriot Act, they were solved. Now, we hear an awful lot about no oversight. The people on the other side of the aisle who are complaining about this had the authority to have oversight hearings. There was only one of them in the last Congress. Compare that to the nine subcommittee hearings, three full committee hearings, and the full markup that we had in 2006 when this side of the aisle had the majority. The people who have been doing the oversight have been the Republicans, not the Democrats. The people who know this law is making Americans safer are the Republicans, and the Democrats once again are complaining.
