mr. chairman , i thank the gentleman from wisconsin for yielding me this time . 
mr. chairman , i will reiterate what has been previously said this date about the patriot act , and i do so for emphasis . 
the first point i want to emphasize is the assurance that the house committee on the judiciary and the crime , terrorism , and homeland security subcommittee did not give the patriot act a mere wink and a nod . 
we , in fact , hosted 12 public hearings ; three before the full committee , nine before our subcommittee . 
it was exhaustive , it was deliberate , it was thorough . 
so this matter was not accelerated and rushed through by any means , as some people seem to believe . 
i mentioned during the rule debate earlier , mr. chairman , about a constituent of mine who complained about the patriot act but he had no specifics . 
he said he had heard it was bad , but he could give me no specifics where in any way civil liberties had been compromised or abused . 
there has been some talk about sunsetting provisions of the act ; 216 and 206 will , in fact , be sunsetted . 
but in these two instances , mr. chairman , there was no evidence of abuse or any violation at all , but these two were sunsetted because , among the other sections in the act , these two seemed to attract most of the controversy . 
so these are the two that stood out controversially but , i reiterate , still no evidence of abuse . 
i think we in the committee on the judiciary have done a thorough job of exhausting and deliberating a very , very important act , and i believe that one reason why we have not been attacked subsequently from 9/11 is because of the presence of the patriot act . 
we expanded the provisions under which law enforcement and public safety officers must operate and must stay within , and as a result we are better for it . 
