In the War on Terror, Protecting Liberty is Essential

In the War on Terror, Protecting Liberty is Essential

WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette released the following statement in opposition to making the Patriot Act permanent:

On the eve of World War II, Franklin Roosevelt reminded our nation ‘Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.' President Roosevelt recognized that while we needed to use every weapon in our arsenal to defeat the enemies of our nation, we also needed to protect the very freedoms our enemies found so threatening.

Those words remain as true today as they did in 1941. Once again we find ourselves at war with enemies who seek to destroy us. Much of the Patriot Act streamlines and encourages information-sharing among our intelligence agencies. I support these provisions because they modernize our laws to effectively fight terrorism and other crimes.

Unfortunately, in the zeal to update our laws to combat terrorism, certain provisions of the Patriot Act go too far. They allow surveillance of anyone's phone records, computer data or even their library records, without judicial oversight. Congress must maintain extremely strict checks on government's ability to abridge Americans' rights, not encourage the further erosion of these rights.

This bill is made even worse by the elimination of the sunset for all but two of these provisions. This will mean that the portions of the Patriot Act that most adversely affect our civil liberties will be enshrined into law forever.

America is at war with enemies that are as threatened by our liberties and freedoms as Nazi Germany was in World War II or Soviet Russia was during the Cold War. We must defeat this threat. But we must do so following the same standard established by Franklin Roosevelt those many years ago: by preserving our liberties and protecting our nation.

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/co01_degette/050721.html