mr. chairman , i rise in opposition to h.r. 3199 , the reauthorization of 16 expiring sections of the patriot act , which weakens the safeguards currently in place to protect innocent americans from sweeping searches and surveillance by the government . 
i am not opposed to the original patriot act . 
in fact , i supported the original bill passed in 2001 because it included provisions which were legitimately needed by law enforcement in order to better pursue terrorists . 
commonsense improvements have been made to update our intelligence and law enforcement capabilities , and to reflect modern-day realities . 
these will remain intact , and today 's vote will not affect such core provisions of the patriot act . 
whether or not h.r. 3199 passes , 90 percent of the patriot act will continue to be enforced . 
my objection , however , is that h.r. 3199 retains numerous objectionable provisions of the patriot act that intrude on our privacy and civil liberties , have been subject to repeated abuse and misuse by the justice department , and have little to do with combating terrorism . 
this legislation does nothing to address the many unilateral civil rights and civil liberties abuses by the administration since the september 11 attacks . 
nor does the bill provide law enforcement with any additional real and meaningful tools necessary to help our nation prevail in the war against terrorism . 
since 2002 , 389 communities , including los angeles , have passed resolutions opposing parts of the patriot act , representing over 62 million people . 
this outcry from america is due to the repeated and serious misuse of the legislation by the justice department . 
consider that the patriot act has been used more than 150 times to secretly search an individual 's home , with nearly 90 percent of those cases having had nothing to do with terrorism . 
it was used against brandon mayfield , an innocent muslim american , to tap his phones , seize his property , copy his computer files , spy on his children , and take his dna , all without his knowledge . 
furthermore , because of gag restrictions , we will never know how many times it has been used to obtain the reading records of average americans from libraries and bookstores . 
h.r. 3199 also extends or makes permanent 16 provisions of the patriot act concerning the government 's expanded surveillance authorities , which are otherwise scheduled to sunset on december 31 , 2005 . 
it is simply irresponsible to make these provisions permanent when there continues to be wide spread concern that these sections of the patriot act can lead to violations of individual civil liberties , as well as tread on our country 's professed support of basic civil rights for all individuals . 
preserving a 4-year sunset for these 16 provisions in the patriot act is one of congress 's strongest mechanisms for maintaining oversight and accountability over expanded government controls that could potentially undermine civil rights and civil liberties . 
we are talking about critical issues that will set the precedence for the rights of people in our country for many years to come . 
the intelligence committee tried to offer sensible amendments to the bill , but was denied by the republican-controlled rules committee . 
one amendment would have tightened the ability of the fbi to conduct roving wiretaps to ensure that only terror suspects -- not innocent americans -- are wire-tapped . 
another amendment would have included the sunset provisions originally in the patriot act to promote accountability and congressional oversight . 
a final amendment would have prohibited the fbi from using the broad powers to get bookstore or library documentary records about any patron . 
even though some in our government may claim that civil liberties must be compromised in order to protect the public , we must be wary of what we are giving up in the name of fighting terrorism . 
striking the right balance is a difficult , but critically important task . 
history has taught us to carefully safeguard our civil liberties -- especially in times of fear and national outrage . 
the lessons of september 11 are that if we allow law enforcement to do their work free of political interference , if we give them adequate resources and modern technologies , we can protect our citizens without intruding on our liberties . 
we all want to fight terrorism , but we need to fight it the right way , consistent with the constitution , and in a manner that serves as a model for the rest of the world . 
unfortunately , h.r. 3199 does not meet those tests and , without the critical safeguards of sunset provisions , does not warrant reauthorization . 
