mr. speaker , i rise in strong support of this rule and the underlying legislation , the usa patriot act . 
i want to thank and congratulate my colleague from georgia for his fine management of this very important rule . 
we obviously are at a critical juncture in our nation 's history . 
september 11 changed the world for all of us here , and it changed the rest of the world . 
obviously , what happened 2 weeks ago today in london made a big change for them and what is going on at this moment in london brought about a big change for them . 
we have made a commitment that , because of the fact that we are in the midst of a global war on terror , we need to do everything within our power to redouble our efforts to ensure that we win that global war on terror . 
we passed the patriot act , mr. speaker , 6 weeks after september 11 of 2001 . 
at that time , i was very insistent on the need for sunset provisions . 
in fact , i remember going at it with our former colleague , now the director of central intelligence , porter goss . 
he was not a strong proponent of sunset provisions at that time . 
and i said : we are so close to the tragic day of september 11 that it is absolutely essential that we ensure that we are doing the right thing with this legislation . 
and we are obviously passing it under the immediate shadow of september 11 , and so it seems to me that it is the right thing for us to do to sunset the provisions here . 
we have gone through this nearly 5-year period , and we have looked for the issue that my colleague the gentlewoman from sacramento ( ms. matsui ) xz4006631 raised as the number one priority concern , the civil liberties of the american people . 
i consider myself a small `` l '' libertarian republican . 
i am very , very committed to the civil liberties of all the american people , and i believe , just as my colleagues have said , that that is at the core of what the united states of america is all about . 
i believe passionately that protecting our homeland and protecting civil liberties are not mutually exclusive . 
the patriot act that we have before us is a very responsible measure . 
we do have sunset provisions remaining intact for two very important provisions after 10 years . 
some argue that is too long , but we have those maintained . 
but we have to realize that if we are going to deal with this challenge , uncertainty is something that people in law enforcement can not live with . 
if we had seen failure , if we had seen violations of civil liberties , then i believe that making modifications would be appropriate , but we continue to have report after report saying there are no instances of civil liberties being violated . 
let me make a statement about this rule . 
this is obviously a very delicate issue . 
we had 47 amendments that were submitted to us in the committee on rules , and i am very proud of the fact that we were able to work with our colleagues addressing concerns that they raised . 
the primary committee of jurisdiction here is the committee on the judiciary . 
we all know that . 
the permanent select committee on intelligence shares very important jurisdiction as well , and i understand that . 
i know there was concern that was raised last night in the committee on rules on the so-called `` lone wolf amendment '' that was addressed , a desire to have it sunsetted by the gentleman from florida ( mr. hastings ) xz4001702 . 
the committee on rules chose to comply with the request of the primary committee of jurisdiction , the committee on the judiciary , on this issue . 
but now having looked at this rule with 47 amendments , nearly half of the amendments that were submitted to us , 11 of the amendments that are made in order under this rule are either amendments offered by democrats or offered by democrats and republicans , bipartisan amendments , and 10 of the amendments that are made in order are offered by republicans . 
so i believe that we have got a good balance on a very important critical issue that must be addressed . 
i believe that the patriot act itself is actually looking out for america , it is not looking after americans . 
that is something that we need to realize as part of the very important goal here . 
i believe this measure will go a long way towards protecting our homeland and ensuring the civil liberties of every single american . 
