mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman from georgia , and i thank the chairman and chairman souder for not only bringing the patriot act reauthorization to the floor but including these important meth provisions in this legislation . 
in rural east tennessee , over 10 years ago meth production showed up in a real ugly way and spread like moonshine of 50 years ago , but 100 times more lethal , through the mountains and the hills . 
we attacked it with Ða comprehensive state-federal-local partnership called the southeast tennessee meth task force and that grew to the east tennessee meth task force , and now it is a statewide , state-of-the-art , frankly , national model for how to combat this problem ; and we were second in the country last year in lab seizures . 
one of the innocent results here , though , of fighting meth and the production of meth are the children that are left in these homes . 
my colleague from tennessee , a democrat from nashville , jim cooper , wrote legislation , and i was the original republican cosponsor , that creates a provision funded at $ 20 million a year for the next 2 years to deal with the children that come out of these meth homes . 
over 10 , 000 children nationally between 2000 and 2003 came out of these meth homes and became wards of the state . 
in my state , 750 alone so far are wards of the state . 
there was no social service network for these children . 
this creates that . 
so we are not just attacking the problem , but we are dealing with the aftermath of this deadly plague on america called methamphetamine production . 
it is so responsible to include it . 
a second on the patriot act . 
in ordinary circumstances , it might not be necessary . 
these are extraordinary circumstances , and it has been necessary . 
the facts do not lie . 
if you listen to the testimony of the attorneys general and the prosecutors and you hear the cases , you know the patriot act has definitely kept our country safer , safer , since september 11 . 
we need to reauthorize it . 
we need to be realistic . 
we can not just pander or engage in mythological discussions . 
deal with the realities . 
we have to do certain things and communicate better . 
the law enforcement personnel have to have the tools and equipment to safeguard our country from these terrorists . 
this is the reality that we face today . 
we can change this later if we need to . 
today , we need to reauthorize it and keep the teeth in federal law enforcement and keep the terrorists out of our country . 
