mr. speaker , i rise this evening to ask that the house retain its oversight authority by inserting 4-year sunsets into h.r. 3199 . 
in the past year , we have asked the department of justice how it is using the authority granted to it under the patriot act . 
some of our questions simply went unanswered . 
other questions were rebuffed , and we were told that the information was classified . 
and still others were avoided by telling us that the information simply was not available . 
however , all of that changed in april of this year when the justice department realized that a straight reauthorization of the patriot act would not happen without serious answers to our reasonable questions . 
suddenly , numbers and examples were no longer unavailable . 
suddenly , the information we had long been seeking was provided . 
i have no doubt that if 16 provisions of the law were not scheduled to sunset at the end of this year , we would still have little information about how these authorities have been used . 
members of the majority have stressed today that the committee on the judiciary has held 12 patriot act hearings in recent months . 
that extensive inquiry would not have occurred had the sunsets in the law not been in place . 
for these reasons , we should reinstate the sunsets for an additional 4 years . 
all 16 of the sunsets that were contained in the original law would be reinserted through this motion to recommit . 
the fbi will still have all the powers that the bill gives it . 
it will simply have to come back 4 years from now and answer our legitimate questions about how those powers have been used . 
reinstating the sunsets is about accountability . 
our colleagues across the aisle will say that no abuses have occurred by the powers granted to the government under the patriot act . 
that point i think is open to debate . 
i think most would agree that the breadth of many of these provisions creates , at a minimum , the potential for abuse and we , therefore , have an obligation to conduct rigorous oversight to ensure that civil liberties are protected . 
inserting the sunset provisions into the law once again will be the way to ensure that we can conduct that vigorous oversight . 
i urge approval for this motion , which will simply assure that we remain in that strong position . 
mr. speaker , i am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from california ( mr. rohrabacher ) xz4003430 . 
