[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10540]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   THREATS TO CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOMS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Udall) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. UDALL of New Mexico. Mr. Speaker, the previous gentlemen spoke 
and said that the Democrats have no plan and have no alternative. The 
gentleman knows that is false. The Democrats have a solid plan for 
economic growth, tax cuts to the middle class, not to the wealthy, 
targeting people who are going to spend it rather than those who are 
going to keep it, tax incentives for small business, which are a solid 
part of our plan, extending unemployment benefits and helping States 
with Medicaid funding. The difference is that our plan is fiscally 
responsible and fast acting and will prime the pump and get the economy 
going again.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about the threats to our 
constitutional freedoms. On September 11, we saw two planes kill 
thousands of people in New York. Our country has been in two conflicts 
overseas since then. There is insecurity in the land. Historically at 
times like these, Presidents and Congresses have run rough-shod over 
our constitutional freedoms and taken away individual rights.
  A few examples in history: When we were about to go to war with the 
French, the Congress passed and John Adams signed the Alien & Sedition 
Act which made it illegal to talk against the government and people 
were thrown in jail for doing so. Abe Lincoln during the Civil War 
suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus. During World War I, we again threw 
people in jail for speaking against the government. During World War 
II, we rounded up over 100,000 Japanese-American citizens and put them 
in internment camps. Fifty years later we realized we had done them 
wrong, and we apologized and paid them a meager sum. During the 
McCarthy era in the Cold War, 160 secret hearings were held and lives 
were ruined if you exercised your constitutional rights.
  So in sum, war and fear and insecurity can make us lose our moorings.
  After September 11, we rushed to pass the PATRIOT Act in 6 weeks. The 
PATRIOT Act has some good provisions which update old laws; but it also 
seriously undermines the Bill of Rights and many other provisions. Take 
one, the fourth amendment, which says there shall not be any searches 
of a person's home without a court issuing a warrant.
  One of the worst examples of a fourth amendment violation in the 
PATRIOT Act is a new provision called sneak and peek. That means you 
can have a secret search of your house. The government can come into 
your house, they can search it, take things, and you may never learn. 
Sounds like the fourth amendment out the door.
  Under the current regime President Bush can label somebody an enemy 
combatant, and they are thrown into a military brig even if they are an 
American citizen. There is no contact with the outside world, no 
attorney, no charges, no trial, and the person may be detained 
indefinitely. That does not sound like American justice to me.

                              {time}  1245

  And then just last week over in the United States Senate as the New 
York Times reports, we had a secret hearing in the Senate Intelligence 
Committee. The White House and the CIA proposed that the CIA and the 
military be given authority to collect intelligence on American 
citizens. Not even during the Cold War did we go this far. We have 
always kept separate the FBI, which does domestic law enforcement, and 
the CIA and the military, which deal with threats outside the country.
  There are many more examples of our rights being eroded today. The 
President must be held to account for these violations. The Congress 
must get a grip on these abuses. The Congress should step forward, step 
up to the plate and review these policies and review these laws. The 
Congress needs to conduct real oversight in public, not behind closed 
doors, and needs to protect our constitutional freedoms. Ben Franklin 
said it best 200 years ago when he said, ``If we surrender our liberty 
in the name of security, then we shall have neither.''

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