madam speaker , i yield myself such time as i may consume . 
madam speaker , i am the author of the sunsets that were put in the patriot act that was signed by the president in october of 2001 because i agreed with what i heard from the gentleman from maryland ( mr. hoyer ) xz4001890 , that we ought to look at what the justice department had done with these expanded powers . 
we have looked at those actions . 
we have looked at how those expanded powers have been utilized ; and in 14 of the 16 cases , nobody had any complaint about how those expanded powers have been utilized . 
now , sunsets are very rare in congressional action . 
i am proud of the fact that i put the sunsets in almost 4 years ago . 
but what i will say is that we do not sunset a whole host of other programs . 
social security is not sunsetted , nor should it be . 
amtrak is not sunsetted , maybe it should be , but it is not . 
and i have , i am looking at the federal criminal code and the national security letters that have been complained of by people on the other side of the aisle ; they are not sunsetted . 
the authority for the national security letters was passed in 1986 when , i recall , the current minority party had a significant majority in the house of representatives . 
now , if sunsets were so important when we are dealing with the civil liberties of the people of the united states of america , why did you forget about them 19 years ago ? 
madam speaker , i reserve the balance of my time . 
