mr. chairman , i certainly want to thank the gentleman from wisconsin ( chairman sensenbrenner ) for putting together this excellent extension and reauthorization of the usa patriot act . 
mr. chairman , america faced a new kind of enemy on september 11 , one that mercilessly attacked civilians on our own shores . 
in response , the congress , i was not here at the time , passed the patriot act to give law enforcement agents appropriate tools to fight the new war on terror . 
today , we have a great opportunity to send a strong message of support for several provisions of this bill which would have expired on december 1. i specifically want to mention the library section . 
for some reason , section 215 has come to be known as that . 
actually , it is one that allows law enforcement officers to gain access to business records . 
why would we not want to have library records and bookstore records be available if there is a suspected terrorist ? 
by doing so , we would only be making bookstores and libraries sanctuaries for these terrorists . 
the purpose of this legislation was when it was originally created and now as we extend it to protect americans . 
we can not afford to make libraries and bookstores havens for those bent on harming u.s. citizens . 
opponents have waged a campaign of misinformation . 
recently , some members on the other side have actually admitted that it has not been abused . 
we want to make sure that americans are protected . 
for that reason , i fully support the reauthorization of the expiring patriot act , and i thank the gentleman from wisconsin ( chairman sensenbrenner ) for his work on this issue . 
