Reaction Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.),
Ranking Member, Senate Judiciary Committee
To The Senate Vote Against Cloture
On The PATRIOT Act Conference Report
News Conference, Senate Radio-TV Gallery
Friday, December 16, 2005

I thank my colleagues on this platform and others who have been part of this effort, and I salute their courage.

Few members of the Senate have believed more strongly than I that a consensus, bipartisan PATRIOT Act would be good for the country and for our security.  I have worked hard toward that goal.  In 2001 I headed the Senate’s negotiations on the original PATRIOT Act.  I was the bill’s chief Senate sponsor and floor manager.  Though it was not the bill I would have written, I was proud of the checks and balances that we included in the bill. 

The sunset provisions – the very reason we are having this debate and this re-evaluation of the PATRIOT Act – are in there because Dick Armey and I fought for them and included them in the final bill.

I also worked hard for the bipartisan bill we produced in the Senate, and even after Democratic conferees were excluded from the writing of the conference report, I worked hard to make it again into a consensus, bipartisan bill.  Several of the changes I fought for were included since Thanksgiving week, when a so-called “final” agreement was first announced, and I appreciate especially Chairman Specter for working with me for those changes.

Checks and balances, judicial review and congressional oversight are vital ingredients in ensuring that new powers given to government are used, and never abused.  It is all the more understandable why the American people have increasingly seen it this way too, when you pick up the paper on a day like today and read about eavesdropping on Americans without court approval.

Our goal has been to mend the PATRIOT Act, not to end it.  The best solution is to just fix the bill.  We can do that before we adjourn next week, if they’ll let us.  I am ready at this moment, and as long as it takes, to work to make this a better bill, and a consensus bill.

Why NOT go the extra mile for a fully bipartisan, consensus bill?

The tension between security and liberty is always present in a free society, and all the more so after 9/11.  It is our job to strike the right balance, and to help maintain the American people’s trust in their government in using the new powers that we give to our government.

We have inherited a sacred trust of freedom, bought with the courage of the Founders and secured by the blood of countless Americans since then.  Ben Franklin spoke for us and for the ages when he said that those who would trade their liberty, for security, deserve neither.  It is up to each new generation to defend those hard-won liberties.  Striking the right balance in this bill will not be difficult to do, if we will only make it a priority to do it.

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