madam speaker , i thank the gentleman for yielding , and thank you , mr. conyers , our ranking member on the judiciary committee , for being such an outstanding leader in protecting our civil liberties and also the national security of our country .  i also extend that to the democrats on the committee .  first , let us be clear about what we are voting on today , madam speaker .  we are not voting for the reauthorization of the patriot act in general .  more than 90 percent of the patriot act is permanent law and includes many noncontroversial provisions that give law enforcement the tools they need .  what is before us on the floor today is the extension of certain provisions which are controversial and have the potential for abuse .  madam speaker , all of us support providing law enforcement officers with the tools they need to combat terrorism .  in doing so , we must also preserve the balance between security and civil liberties and to recognize that not all of the tools law enforcement officers want are tools that they legitimately need .  i can not support the patriot act extension conference report because it does not secure the right balance between security and liberty .  our founding fathers knew well the importance of the balance between security and liberty .  they led a revolution to secure liberty against an arbitrary power .  they knew that you can not have security without liberty and liberty without security in a democracy .  as we consider this conference report , i ask every member of congress , indeed , every american , do you know if a national security letter has been issued about you , a letter to your phone company , your internet provider , your bank , for wholesale collection of records that may include your personal information ?  this letter does not even have to specify that the specific records sought are connected to terrorism , and the recipients , you do not know if such a letter has been issued .  you can not know .  you will never know .  this is the same for every american , and any information , including your most sensitive personal data , along with that of thousands of american citizens gathered by these national security letter requests , will be held in perpetuity by law enforcement .  the recipients , the bank , the phone company , the internet provider , are not allowed to tell anyone they have received this letter about you .  these are searches without any warrant and without any judicial supervision .  just think of it : you do not know , the recipient of the letter who is in possession of your information can not tell you .  you do not know , so you can not challenge it , and the letter can be sent without demonstrating any relationship between the specific records sought and a connection to terrorism .  this is a massive invasion of the privacy of the american people .  this is not just some idle threat .  the washington post reported last month that the fbi hands out more than 30 , 000 national security letters per year , a reported hundredfold increase over historic norms .  how did this happen ?  when originally enacted , the patriot act was intended to be accompanied by congressional oversight so that the implementation did not violate our civil liberties .  unfortunately , the bush administration and the republican congress have been delinquent in the oversight of the patriot act .  as we have seen with this massive and unprecedented scope of national security letters , the implications of the republican failure of oversight are glaring and have a direct impact on every american .  it is long past time for congress to have real oversight .  this conference has missed an opportunity to address the revelation of the widespread use of national security letters .  we must have standards that clarify that there must be a connection to terrorism or to a suspected spy .  section 505 that covers the national security letters must now include a sunset .  that is why i strongly support the request of mr. conyers  for a 3-month extension so that conferees can reconvene , adopt the senate bill , fix the national security letters and get it right .  our democracy requires no less .  another part of this legislation that requires the government to show some connection between the records sought is under the library provision and an individual suspected of being a terrorist or spy .  such a standard is needed to assure that fishing expeditions do not take place .  yet this standard is missing from the republican conference report .  the list of failures goes on .  that is why i think it is important that we support the motion to recommit to adopt the senate bill .  if not that , then to follow mr. conyers ' lead and take 3 months to do this right .  nothing less is at stake than the privacy , the civil liberties , really the essence of our democracy .  we must always remember as we protect and defend the american people , we must honor the oath of office we take here when we are sworn in to protect and defend the constitution and the civil liberties that it contains .  we have an obligation to do that for the american people .  