[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 162 (Friday, December 16, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S13690]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE PATRIOT ACT

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, later this morning the Senate will vote on 
the issue of whether to limit debate on the USA PATRIOT Act. I urge my 
colleagues to support the cloture motion. The PATRIOT Act passed with 
near unanimous support 4 years ago. Since its passage, this commonsense 
law has proved to be one of the most useful, important tools we have in 
our antiterror arsenal. If we can take ourselves back to that morning 
on September 11, many people were at work, many others on the way to 
work when we all heard and soon saw that shocking news that 19 young 
men had hijacked four passenger planes and slammed them into the World 
Trade Center and into the Pentagon, 3 or 4 miles away. A fourth plane 
was en route, and its fate was unknown.
  The oceans separating us from them suddenly vanished and America was 
struck with a horrific force we had never seen before. Three thousand 
innocent Americans lost their lives, and we learned on that dark day 
that out there, hiding in the shadows, is a patient and brutal enemy, 
determined to inflict colossal violence on our shores.
  This enemy does not wear a uniform or march under a national banner. 
It hides among us as neighbors and coworkers, at subway shops and at 
cyber cafes. It hides in plain sight, plotting and planning until the 
moment comes to inflict its massive and terrible cruelty.
  On 9/11, our enemy declared war on the American people, and war is 
what they got. We toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan. We brought down 
Saddam Hussein and dismantled his tyranny. Yesterday, under the 
protection of brave American and Iraqi soldiers, 11 million Iraqi 
people streamed to the polls to freely choose, for the first time in 
the country's modern history, a permanent, democratically elected 
government of and by the people. It was a historic milestone for the 
Iraqi people. It was a historic milestone for freedom. It proved once 
again that every day we are making progress.

  We are fighting the terrorist enemy at home and in the mountains of 
Afghanistan, on the worldwide Web and in the streets of Baghdad. We are 
coordinating our efforts both inside and outside our borders so that we 
never have to suffer another terrorist attack.
  In the days following 9/11, we learned that the enemy had been able 
to elude law enforcement, in part because our agencies were not able to 
share key investigative information. Once we understood this awful 
reality, we swiftly took action. Within 6 weeks of the attacks on 
America, the Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act with overwhelming 
bipartisan support. The Senate vote was near unanimous, with 98 
Senators voting in favor. The PATRIOT Act went to work tearing down the 
information wall between agencies and allowed the intelligence 
community and law enforcement to work more closely in pursuit of 
terrorist suspects.
  Since then, it has been highly effective in tracking down terrorists 
and making our country safer. Because of the PATRIOT Act, the United 
States has charged over 400 suspected terrorists. More than half of 
them have already been convicted. Because of the PATRIOT Act, law 
enforcement has broken up terrorist cells all across the country, from 
New York to California, Oregon, Virginia, and Florida.
  In San Diego, officials were able to use the PATRIOT Act to 
investigate and prosecute several suspects in an al-Qaida drug-for-
weapons plot. The investigation led to several guilty pleas.
  The PATRIOT Act also allowed prosecutors and investigators to crack 
the Virginia Jihad case, involving 11 men who had trained for Jihad in 
northern Virginia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. It specifically 
encourages information sharing among the many branches of Government so 
that our crime-fighting officials can adapt and respond more 
effectively to the terrorist threat. It also levels the playing field, 
so that law enforcement utilizes the tools they already have in other 
kinds of criminal cases, such as drug trafficking and mob activity. It 
is now easier for law enforcement at all levels to appropriately 
investigate and track suspected terrorists already in the United 
States.
  The conference report to reauthorize the PATRIOT Act includes all of 
these provisions and goes further to strengthen and improve America's 
security. It enhances vital safeguards to protect our civil liberties 
and privacy, and it contains new provisions to combat terrorist 
financing and money laundering, to protect our mass transportation 
systems and railways from attacks such as the ones on the London subway 
last summer, secure our seaports, and fight methamphetamine drug abuse, 
America's No. 1 drug problem.
  The clock is ticking. We do need to take action now. In just 15 
days--December 31--nearly all of the provisions of the PATRIOT Act 
expire. If they do, we are right back to where we were pre-9/11. The 
information walls go right back up. We cannot let this happen. We 
cannot lose ground.
  The House, as we all know, acted last week. They passed a conference 
report with a bipartisan vote of 251 to 174. Now is the time for the 
Senate to follow suit.
  The choice is clear. Should we take a step forward in making America 
safer or should we go back to the pre-9/11 days when terrorists slipped 
through the cracks? I believe the answer is clear, and I believe we 
have only one choice.
  I ask my colleagues who are threatening to filibuster to take a 
closer look at that PATRIOT Act conference report. This reasonable 
compromise reached by Senate and House negotiators may not contain 
everything that each and every Member in this body would like, but it 
is much closer to the Senate bill that passed unanimously than it is to 
the House bill. It includes 4-year sunsets on the most controversial 
provisions, just as in the Senate version. And like the Senate version, 
it includes extensive privacy and civil liberty safeguards, as well as 
enhanced congressional oversight.
  As we prepare to vote on cloture later this morning, I urge my 
colleagues to join in support of this essential legislation.
  The FBI, the intelligence community, and our law enforcement need us 
to act. The American people want us to act. American national security 
demands that we act. A nation in fear cannot be a nation that is free.
  I urge my colleagues to stand up for freedom and security for the 
United States of America.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________