Reaction Of Senator Patrick Leahy
To The President’s Saturday Radio Address
On The USA PATRIOT Act
Saturday, Dec. 17, 2005

[Following is the reaction of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt., ranking member, Senate Judiciary Committee, chief Senate sponsor of the original USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, and a former prosecutor) to the President’s Saturday radio address on the PATRIOT Act and on efforts led by Leahy and others in the Senate to make improvements in the proposed rewrite of the PATRIOT Act, which is now pending before Congress.]

“Many of us who want improvements in the PATRIOT Act worked hard to help write and enact the original law in 2001.  We want to make sure these tools are used against terrorists and not abused to undermine the hard-won rights that are the heritage of every American.  Why not go the extra mile for a PATRIOT Act the American people can fully support, knowing that it has sufficient safeguards for their liberty?  

“Threats to our freedoms are as current and as disturbing as this morning’s headlines.  Chairman Specter has pledged hearings on the domestic eavesdropping that the President has authorized, and I support his determination to examine these revelations.  Electronic surveillance is an important law enforcement and intelligence gathering tool, but it can and must be done lawfully, in accordance with our laws and Constitution.

“Fear mongering and false choices do little to advance either the security or liberty of Americans.  Republican and Democratic senators joined together this week to say we can do better to protect Americans’ liberties while ensuring our national security is as strong as it can be.  Every single senator -- Republican and Democratic -- voted in July to mend and extend the PATRIOT Act.  That bipartisan solution dissolved when the Bush Administration and Republican congressional leaders rewrote the bill in ways that fall short in protecting basic civil liberties and then tried to ram it through Congress as an all-or-nothing proposition.    

“I have joined with senators of both parties in an effort to enact a short-term extension so that we can keep working to improve the bill.  For the Bush Administration and Republican congressional leaders to allow the PATRIOT Act to expire would be irresponsible.  Instead of playing partisan politics and setting up false attack ads, they should join in trying to improve the law.  We ask the President and Republican leaders to reconsider their opposition to briefly extending the expiring provisions of the PATRIOT Act until these improvements are made.

“Most importantly, our government must follow the laws and respect the Constitution while it protects Americans’ security and liberty.  The Bush Administration seems to believe it is above the law.  It is not and neither is any administration.  Our nation is a democracy, founded on the principles of balanced government.  We need to restore checks and balances in this country to protect us all and all that we hold dear.”

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