The conference committee has met about reauthorizing the Patriot Act, and what we are hearing is not good. I plan to
fight hard to try to stop a bad bill from becoming law.
Back in
July, I supported a compromise bill in the Senate to reauthorize the 16 provisions of the Patriot Act that expire at the end of this year. Even though that bill didn't include everything I have proposed to protect the rights and freedoms of innocent, law-abiding Americans, it contained some important modifications to the Patriot Act. The bill eventually passed the Senate unanimously.
I was hopeful, after the Senate bill passed, that the reasonable language in that measure would prevail instead of the overly permissive House language on things like Section 215, which allows access to business and library records, and the provision allowing the government to conduct "sneak and peek" searches. But instead, the conference appears to have decided to undermine even the limited positive things we achieved this summer.
I wanted to let you know we are looking at all of the procedural options in the Senate that can be used to stop the Patriot Act conference report this week. We may not be successful but we have to try.
When I voted against the original Patriot Act in 2001, I was the only member of the Senate to do so. Today, I am a part of a strong bipartisan coalition of senators who think we can protect our freedoms and fight the war on terrorism. Here is a letter that the six bipartisan cosponsors of the SAFE Act, a bill first introduced in 2003 to fix the Patriot Act, sent to the conferees today regarding our concerns about the direction in which the conference seems to be headed.
My work has been informed by some of the comments you have posted about issues on this site and I ask you today to give me some feedback about reauthorizing the Patriot Act. I appreciate your input.