CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 3199, USA PATRIOT IMPROVEMENT AND REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - December 14, 2005)
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Mr. LYNCH. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from the great city of Worcester, Massachusetts, for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to the conference report on H.R. 3199, the so-called USA PATRIOT Act, because we have not taken meaningful steps to eliminate or correct the most egregious sections of this act.
In particular, it is disappointing that the conference agreement does not include a meaningful judicial review mechanism for FISA wiretaps, under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as applied against U.S. citizens.
Given that the power that today's surveillance technology gives to government and given the broad powers that we have given to intelligence agencies under this act, the absence of post-execution judicial review in today's conference report constitutes one of its most critical shortcomings.
Madam Speaker, in order to ensure that the powers granted by the PATRIOT Act are not susceptible to abuse, our government must always operate with meaningful oversight, checks and balances.
After all, it is the maximum transparency and active judicial review which is our ultimate weapon in combating both governmental abuse and overreaching by governments to restrict the individual freedoms of our citizens.
For these reasons, I ask my colleagues to oppose the this version of the PATRIOT Act reauthorization.
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