madam speaker , i rise in opposition to this conference report .  the patriot act provided new authorities , but it also modified long-standing laws .  one such change was the lowering of the standard for issuing government requests for financial , telecommunications credit , and other business records .  these requests commonly referred to as national security letters or nsls are issued directly by the government agencies in national security investigations without the approval of a judge .  before the patriot act , the fbi and other issuing agencies had to show there was some nexus to an agent of a foreign power or terrorist .  post-patriot act , the government only has to show the request is relevant to an investigation .  the lowering of this standard has resulted in an all time high in the number of nsls issued .  a recent washington post article alleged that over 30 , 000 national security letters have been issued by the fbi to businesses and private institutions across the nation .  even more disturbing , the article alleged that records collected pursuant to nsls are retained for an indefinite period of time , even when they are not of interest to investigators , and shared with other federal agencies and the private sector .  as a citizen , i am deeply disturbed by these allegations .  as a member of congress , i am disappointed that we have missed a critical opportunity to get the nsl standard right .  we have also missed the opportunity to ensure that nsl recipients have an opportunity to seek meaningful judicial review of the nondisclosure or gag requirements that accompany nsls and further tailor the statutory framework to ensure that privacy and civil liberties are better protected .  i will vote against the conference report .  i think the precious balance of civil liberties and security are damaged here .  