Russ Feingold: “later today we will have a cloture vote on S. 2271. We should not end debate on this bill, and we should not pass this…”

“later today we will have a cloture vote on S. 2271. We should not end debate on this bill, and we should not pass this bill. Doing so will only help implement the deeply flawed deal that was struck with the White House to reauthorize the PATRIOT Act without enacting the core civil liberties protections for which so many of us have fought. So I urge my colleagues to vote no on cloture. Everybody in this body wants to reauthorize the PATRIOT Act. Many of the expiring provisions are entirely noncontroversial. But we also need to fix the provisions that went too far, that do not contain the checks and balances necessary to protect our rights and freedoms. This reauthorization process is our chance to get it right, and moving forward with this bill takes us one step closer to wasting that chance. Back in December, 46 Senators voted against cloture on the PATRIOT Act conference report. I think it is clear by now that the deal makes only minor changes to that conference report, which remains as flawed today as it was 2 months ago. The Senator from Pennsylvania, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the primary proponent of the conference report in this body, was quoted as saying that the changes that the White House agreed to were ``cosmetic.'' And then he said, according to the AP: But sometimes cosmetics will make a beauty out of a beast and provide enough cover for Senators to change their vote.…”