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| House Updates Patriot Act to Keep America Secure |
December 14, 2005 |
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| Subcommittee Chair & Conferee Says Act Vital to Preventing Terrorist Attacks
Washington — Congresswoman Heather Wilson today supported bipartisan passage 251-174 of the updated USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 (H.R. 3199) in the House. Wilson served as a conferee for the bill’s conference report, which now awaits Senate action in the final legislative step before being signed into law.
STATEMENT OF REPRESENTATIVE HEATHER WILSON
H.R. 3119, THE USA PATRIOT IMPROVEMENT AND REAUTHORIZATION ACT
“Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3199, The USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act.
I think it is important to remember why we are considering this Act. Shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, we passed the Patriot Act to help law enforcement and the intelligence community to prevent future attacks. Our enemies are relentless. They want to kill Americans hundreds and thousands at a time.
The Patriot Act provides law enforcement personnel with the tools to prevent terrorist acts. Before the Patriot Act, law enforcement was primarily equipped for prosecution after the fact.
These tools are simple and they are constitutional. When dealing with foreign agents and terrorists, there is a separate legal framework and a special court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court. It’s a federal court, but operates under a separate body of law specific to these unique threats.
Under ordinary criminal law, law enforcement has had tools like delayed notice searches and subpoenas for business records to investigate organized crime, drug trafficking and murder for a long time. However, these tools were not available in intelligence cases to track foreigners suspected of planning terrorism or conducting espionage. The Patriot Act extended these tools used in criminal law to national security investigations. I don’t know why we should offer more civil rights protection for terrorists than we do for drug dealers and organized crime.
This conference report will make permanent 14 of the 16 provisions that were originally due to expire on December 31st of this year.
Two of the provisions, roving wire taps and access to business records, have been carefully considered. We have chosen to continue them, but with modifications for closer scrutiny, more rigorous standards, and another sunset period, this time 4 years.
We have also included in this Act a four-year sunset provision on the “lone wolf” provision created in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. This provision applies to individual foreign terrorists who prepare for, or engage in, terrorism, not as formal members of any group, but instead as part of a movement, such as a Jihad Against America, and occasionally, they act alone.
We have also put in place additional oversight of another tool – National Security Letters. National Security Letters were not originally part of the Patriot Act. In this reauthorization bill we are putting limitations on them, including a specific oversight role for Congress, and an audit by the Department of Justice Inspector General on the effectiveness and use of national security letters involving U.S. persons.
Delayed notice search warrants are also subject to new modifications. Delayed notice search warrants have been used for over 20 years in drug and racketeering investigations. They have been upheld by the Supreme Court as constitutional. The Patriot Act extended this authority to cases involving terrorism. The conference report we are completing today imposes a maximum delay period for the notification of 30 days unless the facts justify otherwise – another mechanism in the overall system of checks and balances.
Mr. Speaker, as conferees, we have also incorporated a very important piece of legislation into this report to combat methamphetamine. Title VII of the report enacts the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005.
A few weeks ago, I was with the Sheriff of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Darren White. Darren and I share a common memory. About 10 years ago, when he was the head of the Department pf Public Safety and I was responsible for child welfare in New Mexico, a man on meth was driving with his two sons through Albuquerque on I-40. Meth can make people paranoid and violent. The man became convinced that one of his sons was possessed by the devil. He pulled his van over to the shoulder of the road and beheaded his son. Darren investigated the crime. My department took custody of the younger brother who had witnessed the whole thing.
As the Sheriff of New Mexico’s most populous county, Darren White has seen it all. Increasingly, murders, domestic violence, and child abuse calls that his Deputies respond to are meth related.
The Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005 is an important bill in the fight against methamphetamine. Title VII of this conference report lowers the amount of pseudoephedrine product an individual can purchase, and helps control meth coming from “super labs” across the border. It strengthens reporting requirements for importers of pseudoephedrine, and helps local governments clean up meth labs.
Methamphetamine is now a close second to marijuana as the most widely abused illegal drug.
Battling meth means controlling the availability of ingredients here in the United States. Meth is highly addictive and it is “cooked” using common cold medicine and household chemicals. Anyone can purchase cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine in grocery stores in every neighborhood. This Act would limit retail sales of pseudoephedrine to 3.6 grams per day and 9.0 grams per month for an individual. It will also require that these medicines be kept behind a counter or in a locked cabinet. Stores will be required to check IDs of purchasers and record purchases of pseudoephedrine.
Super Labs across the border in Mexico are also a problem. This Act would regulate international sales in precursor chemicals and implement enhanced criminal penalties for methamphetamine production and trafficking.
The environmental damage and health hazards that the methamphetamine labs create make them a serious problem for local communities. This bill requires a biennial report to review the designation of the by-products of methamphetamine laboratories as hazardous materials. The clean-up for the labs currently can range from $1,500 to $250,000 depending on the magnitude of the contamination, and federal help for clean-up is available through the EPA.
Drugs are a poison that will destroy our communities and steal the dreams of our children. Meth is cheap, highly addictive, and very dangerous. We need to do everything we can to eliminate it.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the conference report so that our law enforcement personnel can continue to have the tools they need to prevent terrorist acts and prevent drug addiction and drug manufacturing in our neighborhoods.”
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