Senator: Leahy
LEAHY: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
(inaudible) an impressive and aggressive schedule, and I agree with it.
On the question of the Patriot Act, as you know, most of us felt we didn't want to end it, we just wanted to mend it. And that can be done. The bill that was voted out of this committee unanimously -- all Republicans, all Democrats on the Patriot Act -- would have mended it.
As you and I discussed -- when we were at the White House for another matter with President Bush -- there are a number of things I think that could have been handled very quickly with some help from the other body.
Certainly, the concern raised by librarians -- I did raise that with the president; perhaps inspired by the fact that Mrs. Bush was standing right there.
But there's also the gag rules and the presumptions. Those are things that have concerned people across the political spectrum. You find it from gun clubs to civil liberty organizations. These are issues that affect all of us.
LEAHY: I would hope that we might end up fixing those few problems that can be done fairly easily.
There were certainly improvements made in the House bill. I think we would have reached conclusion had the Republicans not decided, as they often do on committee conferences, that all Democrats had to leave the committee conference.
One of the reasons why I was unwilling to sign that conference report is that, notwithstanding the tremendous help from you and the fact that you and I stayed in contact on this, the Republicans determined at the conference -- the chair of the Republican conference or the chair of the conference determined that final decisions on the Patriot Act would be made with only Republicans in the room and not Democrats.
We've seen even in today's press that sometimes there's $20 billion giveaways that result from those kind of conferences. But in this case, I'm more concerned that liberties were given away.
The hearings, I think, are extremely important and I applaud you for doing it.
I'm concerned that when we have these questions of illegal spying, where the law is not being followed, that, in the other body, they've been unwilling -- under pressure from the White House, but unwilling to hold hearings. And, in fact, most committees in the Senate have been unwilling to hold hearings because of the pressure from the White House.
You have taken the position that, whether you have Democrats or Republicans there, we ought to have hearings. This Senate was willing to have hearings during the Clinton administration. And I'm glad to see, finally, we're going to have them during the Bush administration.
I applaud you for doing that. I think there are real questions that should be asked.
On the question of the asbestos legislation, I think that we did put together a bipartisan piece of legislation.
LEAHY: I think it is not going to make everybody satisfied, by any means. But it brings us a lot closer to getting help for people who are suffering grievously from asbestosis. And I think that we would not be this far had you not been willing to stick with it, even during a time of great physical discomfort for you because of the treatment that you underwent for a cancer last year.
SPECTER: Thank you very much, Senator Leahy.
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