mr. chairman , i thank the gentleman from wisconsin for yielding me this time .  mr. chairman , i will reiterate what has been previously said this date about the patriot act , and i do so for emphasis .  the first point i want to emphasize is the assurance that the house committee on the judiciary and the crime , terrorism , and homeland security subcommittee did not give the patriot act a mere wink and a nod .  we , in fact , hosted 12 public hearings ; three before the full committee , nine before our subcommittee .  it was exhaustive , it was deliberate , it was thorough .  so this matter was not accelerated and rushed through by any means , as some people seem to believe .  i mentioned during the rule debate earlier , mr. chairman , about a constituent of mine who complained about the patriot act but he had no specifics .  he said he had heard it was bad , but he could give me no specifics where in any way civil liberties had been compromised or abused .  there has been some talk about sunsetting provisions of the act ; 216 and 206 will , in fact , be sunsetted .  but in these two instances , mr. chairman , there was no evidence of abuse or any violation at all , but these two were sunsetted because , among the other sections in the act , these two seemed to attract most of the controversy .  so these are the two that stood out controversially but , i reiterate , still no evidence of abuse .  i think we in the committee on the judiciary have done a thorough job of exhausting and deliberating a very , very important act , and i believe that one reason why we have not been attacked subsequently from 9/11 is because of the presence of the patriot act .  we expanded the provisions under which law enforcement and public safety officers must operate and must stay within , and as a result we are better for it .  