madam speaker , i thank the gentleman from the great city of worcester , massachusetts , for yielding . 
madam speaker , i rise in opposition to the conference report on h.r. 3199 , the so-called usa patriot act , because we have not taken meaningful steps to eliminate or correct the most egregious sections of this act . 
in particular , it is disappointing that the conference agreement does not include a meaningful judicial review mechanism for fisa wiretaps , under the foreign intelligence surveillance act , as applied against u.s. citizens . 
given that the power that today 's surveillance technology gives to government and given the broad powers that we have given to intelligence agencies under this act , the absence of post-execution judicial review in today 's conference report constitutes one of its most critical shortcomings . 
madam speaker , in order to ensure that the powers granted by the patriot act are not susceptible to abuse , our government must always operate with meaningful oversight , checks and balances . 
after all , it is the maximum transparency and active judicial review which is our ultimate weapon in combating both governmental abuse and overreaching by governments to restrict the individual freedoms of our citizens . 
for these reasons , i ask my colleagues to oppose the this version of the patriot act reauthorization . 
