Nadler, Sanders: Conference Committee Leaders Must Obey
the Will of the House and Senate

Both houses of Congress have asked for four-year sunsets for the PATRIOT Act;
 Inexplicably, seven-year sunsets are now likely instead

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Congressman Bernie Sanders (I-VT) today demanded that the leaders of the PATRIOT Act conference committee not subvert the democratic process by ignoring unanimous votes in both the House and the Senate calling for four-year sunsets in the PATRIOT Act.  The Senate-passed version of bill called for four-year sunsets. The House-passed version called for 10-year sunsets, but the House later unanimously passed a resolution calling on conference committee members to adopt the four-year sunsets included in the Senate version. As highly secretive conference negotiations wrap up, however, it appears the final version of the bill will include seven-year sunsets, not the four-year measures asked for by majorities in both bodies.

“This is a blatant abuse of the democratic process and a blatant abuse of power,” Congressman Nadler said.  “Representative government in America does not have an ‘off’ switch.  The American people do not want a dictatorship; they want a fair, responsive government. When we allow conference committees to rewrite bills behind closed doors, we ignore the will of the people, the will of their elected representatives, and the traditions of American governance.  Chairman Sensenbrenner and Chairman Specter must act in good faith and put Congress’s consensus before their own agendas, whatever they may be. In this case, that means maintaining four-year sunsets.”

The conference committee, to which Nadler was appointed, held only one meeting with members present.  The rest of the negotiations on the Senate- and House-passed versions of the PATRIOT Act were carried out in secret by staff.

“This is just the latest example of the Republican leadership’s abuse of power in the Congress,” Congressman Sanders said.  “How can the American people trust the Republicans not to abuse the powers under the Patriot Act when they have shown over and over again that they are willing to run rough-shod over the rights of rank-and-file Democrats and Republicans in the Congress to get what they want?  If they will do this to other Members of Congress, imagine what they would be willing to do to the average American. These people just cannot be trusted with such sweeping powers to secretly invade the privacy and homes of law-abiding citizens with essentially no justification whatsoever.”

###