Extending Counter Terrorism Authorities

Floor Speech

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Mr. DENT. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of these three provisions of the Patriot Act. I think it's very important that we extend them for a variety of reasons. The lone wolf provision, roving wiretaps, which have been in place for some time, we're not breaking any new ground here. Roving wiretaps have been used by local law enforcement for years in terms of dealing with drug dealers, organized crime. We're simply allowing those roving wiretaps to be extended to those who may be engaged in terrorist activities. Again, not new ground.

Also, importantly, that roving wiretap provision allows us to follow the person, as opposed to the device. Because of the changing technology, somebody can use a cell phone and pitch it and then pick up another one. So rather than having to run back to the court every time, it's much easier to just simply get the warrant for that individual.

Also, the business records provision is something that is extremely important, something that has often been the subject of a great deal of demagoguery, to be perfectly candid, where we have seen folks talk about this as a library provision. It should be noted that many of the 9/11 terrorists used public library or university library computers to make their plane reservations or to confirm those reservations.

The whole point of the Patriot Act is to allow for sharing of information and intelligence between local law enforcement, as well as our intelligence community. That's the point. We want to take down these terrorist cells and operations before they become operational.

Many folks have said that we should not use our military to deal with terrorist threats, that this should be the function of local law enforcement. But many of those same people then will deny the very tools necessary to local law enforcement to take down these terrorist cells.

That's why it's essential that we take the time today to reauthorize these three expiring provisions of the Patriot Act. It is the right thing to do.

And one other thing I wanted to mention about the lone wolf. These lone wolves are a real threat; and allowing us to continue to go after the lone wolf, even if they may not be part of a terrorist organization--we're usually talking about people who are not U.S. persons here--we need to make sure that our intelligence agencies, law enforcement can go after those lone wolves.

We've seen lone wolves. Even though Major Hassan was a U.S. person, that's the type of person we are concerned about. And we see more of that.

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