May 26, 2011

“Although the PATRIOT Act is not a perfect law, it provides our intelligence and law enforcement communities with crucial tools to keep America safe and thwart terrorism. While I am disappointed we were not able to include any of the sensible oversight and civil liberties protections included in the bill reported by the Judiciary Committee with bipartisan support, I strongly support the Senate’s effort to ensure that these important authorities do not expire.

“The raid that killed Osama bin Laden also yielded an enormous amount of new information that has spurred dozens of investigations yielding new leads every day. Without the PATRIOT Act, investigators would not have the tools they need to follow these new leads and disrupt terrorist plots, needlessly putting our national security at risk.”