Coble Praises Passage of Patriot Act

COBLE PRAISES PASSAGE OF PATRIOT ACT

Washington, Mar 7 -

A senior member of the House Judiciary committee praised tonight's passage of the conference report of the USA PATRIOT Act, which passed the House by a vote of 280-138. U.S. Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC) said that two provisions he authored dealing with port security and illegal cigarette trafficking were included in the final version of the bill, previously approved by the Senate, and is now on its way to President Bush for his signature.

"Granted, the bill expanded the parameters of law enforcement," Rep. Coble said on the House floor this afternoon, "but not to the detriment of law-abiding citizens. After 9-11, I made the statement that my next fear - and my most pressing fear - is that the next attack will come by water, at ports and/or harbors; the very point plagues us today with the ports issue. We are indeed still vulnerable, but we're not as vulnerable as we were on 9-11, and part of that security must be directly related to the PATRIOT Act."

http://coble.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=40377