[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 10 (Monday, March 13, 2006)]
[Pages 423-425]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Signing the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act 
of 2005

March 9, 2006

    Welcome. Thanks for the applause. Glad you're here in the people's 
house.
    I'm going to sign--in a few moments I'll be signing the USA PATRIOT 
Improvement and Reauthorization Act. This is a really important piece of 
legislation. It is a piece of

[[Page 424]]

legislation that's vital to win the war on terror and to protect the 
American people.
    The law allows our intelligence and law enforcement officials to 
continue to share information. It allows them to continue to use tools 
against terrorists that they used against--that they use against drug 
dealers and other criminals. It will improve our Nation's security, 
while we safeguard the civil liberties of our people. The legislation 
strengthens the Justice Department so it can better detect and disrupt 
terrorist threats. And the bill gives law enforcement new tools to 
combat threats to our citizens from international terrorists to local 
drug dealers.
    It is an important piece of legislation, and I thank those here who 
helped get it passed. I particularly want to thank the Attorney General, 
Al Gonzales. It's good to see former Attorney Generals here as well. I 
appreciate Secretary Mike Chertoff, Secretary John Snow, Ambassador 
Negroponte, Bob Mueller. Thank you all for coming. John Walters, 
appreciate you being here.
    I particularly want to thank the Members of the Congress who are up 
here, starting with the Speaker of the House, Denny Hastert. Mr. 
Speaker, thanks for your leadership on this important piece of 
legislation. I do want to pay special tribute to Senator Arlen Specter 
and Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner. These are the chairmen of the 
Judiciary Committees that got this legislation to this desk. Thank you 
all for your hard work. I appreciate you being here.
    I want to thank Pat Roberts, who's with us; John Boehner, who's 
majority leader; Roy Blunt, the majority whip. I want to thank all the 
other Members of the Congress who have joined us, particularly Peter 
King, who is the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.
    I want to thank all the State and local officials who are here. 
Chief Ramsey, it's good to see you. Appreciate you coming. Always be 
good to the local police chief. [Laughter]
    America remains a nation at war. The war reached our shores on 
September the 11th, 2001. On that morning, we saw clearly the violence 
and hatred of a new enemy. We saw the terrorists' destructive vision for 
us when they killed nearly 3,000 men, women, and children.
    In the face of this ruthless threat, our Nation has made a clear 
choice: We will confront this mortal danger; we will stay on the 
offensive; and we're not going to wait to be attacked again. Since 
September the 11th, 2001, we have taken the fight to the enemy. We've 
hunted terrorists in the mountains of Afghanistan, cities of Iraq, in 
the islands of Southeast Asia, and everywhere else they plot, plan, and 
train. Our men and women in uniform have brought down two regimes that 
supported terrorism. We liberated 50 million people. We've gained new 
allies in the war on terror.
    As we wage the war on terror overseas, we're also going after the 
terrorists here at home, and one of the most important tools we have 
used to protect the American people is the PATRIOT Act. The PATRIOT Act 
closed dangerous gaps in America's law enforcement and intelligence 
capabilities, gaps the terrorists exploited when they attacked us on 
September the 11th.
    The PATRIOT Act was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. It 
strengthened our national security in two important ways. First, it 
authorized law enforcement and intelligence officers to share vital 
information. Before the PATRIOT Act, criminal investigators were often 
separated from intelligence officers by a legal and bureaucratic wall. 
The PATRIOT Act tore down the wall. And as a result, law enforcement and 
intelligence officers are sharing information, working together, and 
bringing terrorists to justice.
    Secondly, the PATRIOT Act has allowed agents to pursue terrorists 
with the same tools they use against other criminals. Before the PATRIOT 
Act, it was easier to track the phone contacts of a drugdealer than the 
phone contacts of an enemy operative. Before the PATRIOT Act, it was 
easier to get the credit card receipts of a tax cheater than trace the 
financial support of an Al Qaida fundraiser. The PATRIOT Act corrected 
these double standards, and the United States is safer as a result.
    Over the past 4 years, America's law enforcement and intelligence 
personnel have proved that the PATRIOT Act works. Federal, State, and 
local law enforcement have used the PATRIOT Act to break up terror

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cells in Ohio, New York, Oregon, and Virginia. We've prosecuted 
terrorist operatives and supporters in California and Texas, New Jersey, 
Illinois, Washington, and North Carolina.
    The PATRIOT Act has accomplished exactly what it was designed to do. 
It has helped us detect terror cells, disrupt terrorist plots, and save 
American lives. The bill I sign today extends these vital provisions. It 
also gives our Nation new protections and added defenses.
    This legislation creates a new position of Assistant Attorney 
General for National Security. This will allow the Justice Department to 
bring together its national security, counterterrorism, 
counterintelligence, and foreign intelligence surveillance operations 
under a single authority. This reorganization fulfills one of the 
critical recommendations of the WMD Commission. It will help our brave 
men and women in law enforcement connect the dots before the terrorists 
strike.
    This bill also will help protect Americans from the growing threat 
of methamphetamine. Meth is easy to make. It is highly addictive. It is 
ruining too many lives across our country. The bill introduces 
commonsense safeguards that would make many of the ingredients used in 
manufacturing meth harder to obtain in bulk and easier for law 
enforcement to track.
    For example, the bill places limits on large-scale purchases of 
over-the-counter drugs that are used to manufacture meth. It requires 
stores to keep these ingredients behind the counter or in locked display 
cases. The bill also increases penalties for smuggling and selling of 
meth. Our Nation is committed to protecting our citizens and our young 
people from the scourge of methamphetamine.
    The PATRIOT Act has served America well, yet we cannot let the fact 
that America has not been attacked since September the 11th lull us into 
the illusion that the terrorist threat has disappeared. We still face 
dangerous enemies. The terrorists haven't lost the will or the ability 
to kill innocent folks. Our military, law enforcement, homeland 
security, and intelligence professionals are working day and night to 
protect us from this threat. We're safer for their efforts, and we'll 
continue to give them the tools to get the job done.
    And now, it's my honor to sign the USA PATRIOT Improvement and 
Reauthorization Act of 2005.

Note: The President spoke at 2:46 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Charles H. Ramsey, chief, 
Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, DC. H.R. 3199, approved 
March 9, was assigned Public Law No. 109-177. The Office of the Press 
Secretary also released a Spanish language transcript of these remarks.