mr. speaker , i rise this evening to ask that the house retain its oversight authority by inserting 4-year sunsets into h.r. 3199 .  in the past year , we have asked the department of justice how it is using the authority granted to it under the patriot act .  some of our questions simply went unanswered .  other questions were rebuffed , and we were told that the information was classified .  and still others were avoided by telling us that the information simply was not available .  however , all of that changed in april of this year when the justice department realized that a straight reauthorization of the patriot act would not happen without serious answers to our reasonable questions .  suddenly , numbers and examples were no longer unavailable .  suddenly , the information we had long been seeking was provided .  i have no doubt that if 16 provisions of the law were not scheduled to sunset at the end of this year , we would still have little information about how these authorities have been used .  members of the majority have stressed today that the committee on the judiciary has held 12 patriot act hearings in recent months .  that extensive inquiry would not have occurred had the sunsets in the law not been in place .  for these reasons , we should reinstate the sunsets for an additional 4 years .  all 16 of the sunsets that were contained in the original law would be reinserted through this motion to recommit .  the fbi will still have all the powers that the bill gives it .  it will simply have to come back 4 years from now and answer our legitimate questions about how those powers have been used .  reinstating the sunsets is about accountability .  our colleagues across the aisle will say that no abuses have occurred by the powers granted to the government under the patriot act .  that point i think is open to debate .  i think most would agree that the breadth of many of these provisions creates , at a minimum , the potential for abuse and we , therefore , have an obligation to conduct rigorous oversight to ensure that civil liberties are protected .  inserting the sunset provisions into the law once again will be the way to ensure that we can conduct that vigorous oversight .  i urge approval for this motion , which will simply assure that we remain in that strong position .  