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U.S.
Senator Member of the Agriculture, Energy and Veterans Affairs
Committees |
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For Immediate
Release December 16, 2005 |
CONTACT: Cody Wertz – Press Secretary 202-228-3630 Jen Clanahan – Deputy Press Secretary 303-455-7600 |
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| Sen. Salazar and “SAFE Act Six” Successfully Fight to Continue Debate on PATRIOT Act WASHINGTON, D.C. - United States Senator Ken Salazar today released the following statement after the Senate voted to continue debate on the reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act: “Today, I voted to continue debate on the conference report on the PATRIOT Act reauthorization. Such an important piece of legislation should not be rushed through the Senate without serious and thoughtful consideration. I was proud to be joined in this vote by a bipartisan group of my colleagues, including Senators Craig (R-ID), Murkowski (R-AK), Sununu (R-NH), Durbin (D-IL) and Feingold (D-WI). I am pleased that so many of my fellow Senators saw the wisdom of their leadership to this position. “Let me be clear: I support extending all of the expiring powers of the PATRIOT Act. I firmly believe we can extend those powers, while at the same time providing sufficient checks on those powers to protect Americans’ fundamental civil liberties. “It is imperative that the Congress pass an immediate short-term extension of the PATRIOT Act, to prevent law enforcement from being hamstrung at the end of the year. This will allow sufficient time for a serious consideration of concerns the Senate previously addressed in the bipartisan SAFE Act and the bipartisan, unanimously supported Senate bill that passed earlier this year. “This morning’s media reports that President Bush signed an executive order authorizing the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on American citizens – without a warrant – are deeply troubling. If we needed a wake-up call about the need for adequate civil liberties protections to be written into our laws, this is it. I look forward to working in a bipartisan fashion in the coming months to develop a bill which ensures these protections while providing law enforcement with the complete extension of the tools they need to keep us safe.”
The text of Senator Salazar’s remarks on the Senate floor this morning are included below: Mr. President, first let me once again thank the distinguished Senator from Vermont and the distinguished Senator from Pennsylvania for their leadership on this effort. I want to take this opportunity once again to express my serious concerns about the PATRIOT Act conference report that is currently before the Senate. As I stated yesterday on this Senate floor, I am very familiar with the needs of the more than 800,000 men and women working in law enforcement throughout our country, including those engaged in the fight against terrorism. For that reason, I support extending all the expiring powers of the USA PATRIOT Act. I firmly believe we can extend those powers while at the same time providing sufficient checks on those powers to protect American’s fundamental civil liberties. That’s what the bipartisan SAFE Act did. That’s what the bipartisan, unanimously supported Senate bill did. That’s what this conference report could have done if it simply addressed the modest concerns my colleagues and I laid out in our letter to conferees with respect to section 215, not security letters, and sneak-and-peek searches. Unfortunately, these concerns were not addressed in the conference report and I am left with no choice but to work with my colleagues, both democrats and republicans, to defeat the bill before. Mr. President, the Washington Post and the New York Times reported that President Bush signed an Executive Order authorizing the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on American citizens without a warrant. These reports suggest that the phone calls and e-mails of hundreds and perhaps even thousands of Americans have been monitored over the past three years without the approval of a judge or even the approval of the secret FISA court. These allegations, if true, are deeply, deeply troubling. If we needed a wakeup call about the need for adequate civil liberties protections to be written into our laws, this is the wakeup call. The bill before us does not contain the needed protections. We still have the time to get it right. Several of my colleagues and I have introduced legislation to extend the current PATRIOT Act for three months so that we can get back to the table and make the necessary and vital improvements that will protect our rights under our constitution. I urge my colleagues to
vote against invoking cloture and in favor of giving congress the time
it needs to preserve the basic rights and freedoms of all Americans.
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