madam speaker , i rise in strong opposition to the conference report to h.r. 3199 . 
we should go back into conference and work on a bipartisan , balanced conference report . 
instead of rushing to finalize a partisan conference report that dismisses concerns for americans ' civil liberties , we should pass a 3 month extension and try to find a bipartisan balance . 
unfortunately , the house leadership is unwilling to strike that balance and have put forth for consideration a conference report that no democratic conferee signed . 
this is unconscionable . 
madam speaker , many objectionable provisions remain in this conference report , but two issues in particular were ignored by the majority . 
first , the conference report fails to provide a standard to challenge national security letters . 
we recently learned that over 30 , 000 national security letters are issued every year to businesses of all types without court approval . 
yet , this conference report provides little to no mechanism to allow for a citizen to challenge these letters in court , and sets no deadline for destroying the private information that has been collected . 
shame on us for not allowing a citizen to redress his grievances , and , shame on us for not ensuring that private information is destroyed once it is collected . 
second , this conference report fails to address the very real issue that has been of great concern to many americans : section 215 secret court orders for library , medical , and other personal records . 
it leaves the standard for obtaining `` any tangible thing '' at simply a `` relevance '' standard to an investigation , basically allowing the government to conduct a fishing expedition if it deems appropriate . 
as i , along with several of my colleagues , said in a letter to chairman sensenbrenner and chairman specter , there is nothing in this standard to stop the fbi from asking a library to turn over its circulation list of everyone who had checked out a book on islam since the september 11th attacks . 
shame on us for allowing this to remain in the final conference report . 
madam speaker , i have heard a lot of talk during the last four years that we will not yield to the terrorists . 
that we will fight tyranny with freedom and democracy , and the power of our ideas will prevail . 
i agree with that sentiment . 
yet , today , we are considering limiting freedoms by allowing provisions such as the section 215 secret court orders and national security letters that i mentioned earlier . 
as a former prosecutor , i understand the need for tools to prosecute those who would do us harm . 
i also know that those same tools can be used to curtail freedoms of innocent americans . 
we must provide common sense tools to prosecutors , but we must protect the liberty of all americans . 
as i asked in june of this year , and as i ask again now , `` what will generations to come think when they have seen we have permanently lowered the bar in protecting their civil liberties ? 
`` madam speaker , whenever we discuss the patriot act , i am reminded of a very wise saying by one of our founding fathers , benjamin franklin . 
he said , `` they that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. '' i will vote against this conference report and urge my colleagues to do the same . 
we should go back to conference and craft a conference report that protects all of our civil liberties . 
