madam speaker , i yield myself such time as i may consume .  madam speaker , i think it is important for the members to note that the motion to instruct deals specifically with the `` lone wolf '' provision and sunsets that .  the lone wolf provision was not passed as a part of the patriot act in october 2001 , but was included as a part of the intelligence bill which was enacted into law a little bit less than a year ago .  so as a result , the committees and the public have not been able to have as extensive oversight and for as long a period of time as the other 16 provisions that were sunsetted in the act which the president signed in october 2001 .  so i think it is appropriate to have a sunset on the lone wolf provision simply because we do not have the experience of being able to examine what the justice department has done with this new and expanded authority .  on the other hand , let me say that we are negotiating with the senate at the present time on what the length of the sunset is , and i think that the sunset on this provision will be longer than 4 years , and the sunset on the other two provisions that were contained in the house-passed bill will be shorter than the 10 years that the house of representatives placed in the bill , which was passed and sent over to the other body .  having said all of this , i would like to make a couple of points .  first of all , finding out what a department or an agency of the executive branch is doing is entirely the prerogative of the committee that has the responsibility for the oversight and of its chair .  i have been extremely vigorous , since the enactment of the patriot act , in doing oversight over what the department of justice has done relative to that law , and i am happy to say that most of the oversight letters that have been sent to the attorney general have been cosigned by the gentleman from michigan ( mr. conyers )  , ranking member of the judiciary committee .  we have been kind of like tough school marms with the department of justice because when they were late and when they were nonresponsive to the questions , we required the department of justice to come up with responsive answers , and those responsive answers we placed on the committee 's web site so that anybody with internet access could be able to find out what the questions were and what the answers were , with the exception of responses that were classified and which were sent to the intelligence committee rather than to the judiciary committee .  in addition to the oversight which was done , the original patriot act requires the inspector general of the department of justice to report twice a year to the relevant committees of congress the number of civil liberties violations that have been found against the department of justice as a result of its exercising the increased and new requirements and powers in the patriot act .  we have received those reports by the inspector general of the department of justice on a regular and on a timely basis , and the answer to how many civil liberties violations have been proven is none .  repeatedly they have said there are no civil liberties violations that the inspector general has been able to uncover .  further , i resisted a premature repeal or extension of the sunset prior to this congress because i felt it was important that the oversight be done for as long a time as possible so that the congress will be able to look over the shoulder of the department of justice and find out whether or not they were doing it the right way or whether or not they needed a tap on the shoulder from capitol hill for improvements in their methods of operation .  when we did get to this congress with the oversight being completed and the sunset approaching , i fulfilled the promise that i made to the public and anybody who asked that we would be doing a section-by-section review of the expiring sections of the patriot act .  the house committee on the judiciary had 12 separate hearings on the patriot act 's sunset provisions .  there were minority witnesses at all of the hearings except the one where the attorney general and the one where the deputy attorney general appeared to testify .  there was plenty of time for questions by every member of the committee .  as a result of all of those hearings , we found that all but two or three sections of the patriot act were essentially noncontroversial .  nobody was complaining about an abuse of power .  nobody had proved abuse of power .  nobody had alleged an abuse of power .  and as a result , the house-passed bill eliminated the sunsets for those sections of the patriot act for which there was no complaint at these extensive series of hearings , and that is good policy .  and if it is not good policy , then the message that is given downtown as well as to the public is that our oversight really does not make any difference .  if the oversight shows they have been doing a good job , they ought to be rewarded .  getting rid of the 14 of the 16 sunset provisions that were contained in the original patriot act does not mean that the justice department is not going to have the committee looking over its shoulder .  we will do that ; but , again , that depends upon the priorities of the committee and the priorities of its chair .  and as long as i am the chairman of the committee , there will be vigorous oversight of the department of justice , not only on how they are handling the patriot act but how they are handling all of the other laws that the committee has oversight jurisdiction over .  because the motion to instruct only relates to the lone wolf provision and i believe that because we have had a much shorter period of time in viewing how they have dealt with the lone wolf provision because it was passed 3 years after the original patriot act was enacted into law , i think this motion to instruct is a proper one , although i do think that the difference between 4 years and 7 years still should be negotiated with the senate .  but because the gentleman from virginia is 95 percent to where we ought to be , i am going to vote for it , and maybe he will be a little bit more flexible with the other 5 percent .  madam speaker , i reserve the balance of my time .  