[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Page 20240]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                       ANTI-TERRORISM LEGISLATION

  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I wish to explain to my colleagues the 
reasons for my objection to a unanimous consent request for the Senate 
to take up the anti-terrorism legislation, the Anti-Terrorism Act of 
2001, H.R. 2975, passed by the House of Representatives on October 12, 
2001. My public explanation is consistent with the commitment I have 
made to explain publicly any so-called ``holds'' that I may place on 
legislation.
  I regret that I must object to any Senate action on the House-passed 
measure at this point. I do so because the national anti-terrorism 
legislation is in grave danger of being rendered useless. The Senate-
passed anti-terrorism bill included an important, bipartisan provision, 
the Professional Standards for Government Attorneys Act of 2001, 
authored by Judiciary Chairman Leahy, Ranking Member Hatch and myself 
and supported by the Administration, the FBI and the Department of 
Justice. This provision corrected an immediate and severe impediment to 
the undercover investigations that must be employed to shut down 
terrorism in our Nation. The House failed to include this provision, 
which is section 501 of the Senate's anti-terrorism bill, that will 
untie the hands of Federal prosecutors in Oregon, allowing them to 
supervise undercover and other covert enforcement techniques. For more 
than a year now, the so-called McDade law has prohibited prosecuting 
attorneys working at the State and Federal levels in Oregon from 
advising and conducting law enforcement undercover investigations on 
narcotics, child sex abuse, prostitution, organized crime, housing 
discrimination and consumer fraud. Without advice of counsel, law 
enforcement operatives cannot conduct wiretaps, sting operations or 
infiltrate dangerous criminal or terrorist operations. If the Senate 
does not insist on this language, it will be an engraved invitation to 
terrorists and criminals to set up shop in Oregon with little fear of 
detection or apprehension through undercover or covert methods. This 
would endanger not just the people of Oregon, but all Americans.
  I do not believe the Senate should allow the security of every 
American to be jeopardized. As I stated on the floor of the United 
States Senate yesterday, I do not want to find six months from now that 
terrorists have made their homes in Oregon because this body failed in 
its resolve to shut them down in every State in our country. I regret 
having to take this action but I believe that leaving one State


vulnerable makes each State in this country vulnerable.

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