mr. chairman , the fight against terrorism is very serious business and we need to give law enforcement the tools it needs to prevent terrorist attacks against the american people . 
when the congress approved the patriot act four years ago , we recognized that the serious nature of the threat required giving law enforcement broad new powers to help prevent it . 
but we were wise enough to also recognize that under our constitution , laws and traditions , such broad power requires checks and balances as well as continuous congressional oversight to ensure that this power is not abused . 
i voted for the patriot act four years ago . 
i support most of the 166 provisions of the patriot act ; indeed , today 's debate has nothing to do with the vast majority of these provisions , which are already the permanent law of the land . 
the bill before the house today concerns only the 16 provisions of the patriot act subject to sunset -- the provisions that have the most serious potential impact on the fundamental liberties of innocent americans if they are abused . 
these 16 provisions involve the power of the government to enter and search people 's homes without notice , to tap people 's communications with roving wiretaps , and obtain people 's library and health records . 
because these provisions touch on the most basic liberties of citizens , we included sunsets so congress would the bill before the house takes away the sunset provisions for 14 of these sensitive provisions , and sets ineffectively long ten-year sunsets for the other two provisions . 
in so doing , this bill throws assured oversight and accountability out the window . 
let me say this . 
many of us voted for the patriot act four years ago with the assurances that there would be meaningful oversight by congress . 
for much of the past four years , the rigorous oversight we were promised simply did n't happen . 
it has only been in the last few months , as the sunset dates approached , that congress has asked questions , and held the administration 's feet to the fire to provide basic information about how the patriot act is being implemented . 
now the majority proposes to discard the sunset provisions . 
the experience of the last four years shows that without sunsets , there is no oversight and no accountability . 
i had hoped that the serious shortcomings in this bill could be corrected on the floor today , but the majority has blocked a number of important amendments democrats sought to offer . 
i believe that many of these amendments would have been adopted had they been put to a vote . 
it did n't have to be this way . 
i understand that the senate judiciary committee has unanimously approved its own version of the patriot act today that contains many of the improvements that the house leadership denied us the opportunity to debate . 
i regret that the leadership of the house has not embraced a similar bipartisan process . 
i will vote for the motion to recommit the bill , which would correct the most serious shortfalls in the legislation ; in particular , the lack of sunsets of key provisions -- sunsets that were contained in the original patriot act . 
i will therefore oppose passage of this legislation today in the hope that the bipartisan senate judiciary committee 's version will prevail in the senate . 
