Previous Politech message: http://www.politechbot.com/2005/12/08/patriot-act-update/ Text of conference report: http://news.com.com/pdf/ne/2005/Final_Conference_Report.pdf --- Senator Patrick Leahy, Ranking Member, Senate Judiciary Committee Statement On Introduction Of A Bill To Extend Expiring PATRIOT Act Powers December 12, 2005 Mr. LEAHY. On a September morning four years ago nearly 3,000 lives were lost on American soil, and our lives as Americans changed in an instant. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Congress moved swiftly to pass anti-terrorism legislation. The fires were still smoldering at Ground Zero in New York City when the USA PATRIOT Act became law on October 30, 2001, just six weeks after the attacks. Many of us here in the Senate today worked together in a spirit of bipartisan unity and resolve to craft a bill that we had hoped would make us safer as a Nation. Freedom and security are always in tension in our society, and especially so in those somber weeks after the attacks, and we tried our best to strike the right balance. One of the fruits of that bipartisanship was the PATRIOT Act’s sunset provisions. These key provisions set an expiration date of December 31, 2005, on certain government powers that had great potential to affect the civil liberties of the American people. Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey and I insisted on these sunsets to ensure that Congress would revisit the PATRIOT Act within a few years and consider refinements to protect the rights and liberties of all Americans more effectively, and we prevailed. Sadly, the Bush Administration and the Republican congressional leadership have squandered key opportunities to improve the PATRIOT Act. The House-Senate conference report filed last week by Republican lawmakers falls short of what the American people expect and deserve from us. The bipartisan Senate bill, which the Senate Judiciary Committee and then the Senate adopted unanimously, struck a far better balance. The reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act must have the confidence of the American people. The Congress should not rush ahead to enact flawed legislation to meet a deadline that is within our power to extend. We owe it to the American people to get this right. The way forward to a sensible and workable bipartisan bill is clear. Today I am pleased to join with Senator Sununu and others to introduce a bill to extend the sunsets on the expiring PATRIOT Act powers until March 31, 2006. Our bill also extends for three months the so-called “lone wolf” FISA surveillance authority, which Congress enacted last year as part the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act. The deadline that Congress imposed to ensure oversight and accountability should not now become a barrier to achieving bipartisan compromise and the best bill we can forge together. This is a vital debate, and these are vital issues to all Americans. If a brief extension is needed to produce a better bill that will better serve all of our citizens, then by all means, let us give ourselves that time. # # # # # _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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