madam speaker , i yield myself the balance of my time .  the discussion today is not whether or not the federal government after 9/11 should have had expanded police powers and investigative authority .  that is not the issue .  and i voted for that expansion of the police power , just as most of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and all of my colleagues on this side of the aisle did , almost all of my colleagues on this side of the aisle voted .  that is not the question , because when we voted for those expansions , we put in a sunset clause that after a certain number of years , 4 years , that the issues of those expanded authorities would be re-examined .  the only question at hand in the debate today is whether or not those expanded powers for wartime expansion in the war against radical islam should be made permanent even now in this time of crisis .  this is not a good strategy for free government to change permanently its law during a moment of crisis .  i would vote for the patriot act again because i think that these powers that were just described are needed at this moment , even the ones that were just described by my friends on the other side of the aisle .  but that still does in no way justify permanently expanding those powers so that once the gentleman from wisconsin is no longer here to conduct hearings that the federal government still has those powers perhaps for people who are less , let us say less responsible than mr. sensenbrenner  in overseeing those expanded powers .  our founding fathers understood limitations on government is a guarantee of freedom .  now is not the time for us to permanently change law and permanently put freedom at risk .  