“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.”

The national security of the United States is at stake, and the junior Senator from Kentucky is complaining that he has not been able to offer amendments.

Let me take a moment to set the record straight.

As the Senator from Kentucky is well aware, I have worked long and in good faith to try to get an agreement to consider amendments.  In fact, I offered him a solution that is more than fair: I proposed a consent agreement that would have brought before the Senate six amendments – more than half of which, four of them, were written by the Senator from Kentucky.

Unfortunately, in order to continue his political grandstanding, he rejected that offer.

It’s unfortunate because the inability to reach an agreement has serious consequences.  At midnight tomorrow, the PATRIOT Act will expire.  Unless the Senator from Kentucky stops standing in the way, our law enforcement will no longer be able to use some of the most critical tools they need to counter terrorists and combat terrorism.

If they cannot use these tools – tools that identify and track terrorist suspects – it could have dire consequences for our national security.

When the clock strikes midnight tomorrow, we would be giving terrorists the opportunity to plot attacks against our country, undetected.  In the last several years, the government has stopped dozens of would-be terrorists before they could strike.  Now the Senator from Kentucky is threatening to take away the best tools we have for stopping them.

Today the Republican Leader and I received a letter from James Clapper, the country’s Director of National Intelligence.  He knows better than any of us the real effects of letting terrorist-fighting tools expire.  In his letter, he wrote about our ability to conduct surveillance on foreign radicals, to track purchases of bomb-making materials and other, classified programs.  All of these would expire with the PATRIOT Act, if we let it.

This is a particularly bad time to shut down electronic surveillance activities.  As has been widely reported in the press, we recovered thousands of documents, photos, videos and other material from Osama bin Laden’s compound.  This material has opened dozens of investigations and leads to new terrorism suspects.  It continues to yield more and more information by the day.

If the Senator from Kentucky refuses to relent, the government will be unable to fully pursue these leads.  That would increase the risk of a retaliatory terrorist strike against the homeland, and hamper our ability to deal a truly fatal blow to al Qaeda.

So Director Clapper asked us not to allow a moment’s interruption in the intelligence community’s ability to protect the American people.

Some may be asking, then, why is the Senator from Kentucky is holding out?  What is keeping him from accepting an agreement to move forward – one that, as I explained, is more than fair to him?

The reason is that he is fighting for an amendment to protect the right – not of average citizens, but of terrorists – to cover up their gun purchases.

We all remember the tragic Fort Hood shootings less than two years ago.  A radicalized American terrorist bought guns from a Texas gun store and used them to kill 13 innocent soldiers and civilians.  It is hard to imagine why the Senator from Kentucky would want to hold up the PATRIOT Act for a misguided amendment that would make America far less safe.

The Senator from Kentucky also complains that the Senate has not had a week of debate.  He’s going to have to come up with something better than that.

Here’s why: This matter has been before the Senate for a week.  I moved to proceed to the PATRIOT Act last Thursday.  As of today, the Senate has been working toward passing this measure for seven days.

There is no question that Senators have had the opportunity to debate it.  The only question has been how Senators have chosen to use these last seven days.

The bottom line is that, no matter how long it takes to get there, we will have this vote.  We will pass the PATRIOT Act and do everything we can to keep the American people safe.  It is up to the Senator from Kentucky whether those national-security programs will expire before we get a chance to vote.

The clock is ticking, and the ball is in his court.

“In the same week that the men and women of our intelligence community are using fresh evidence to track down al Qaeda, Republicans are blocking us from confirming the man who signs the warrants they need to hunt down terrorists.

“The Deputy Attorney General oversees the Department of Justice National Security Division, and he authorizes critical intelligence and law enforcement efforts to identify and disrupt terrorist plots. It is dangerous for Republicans to hold up a key member of the President’s national security team. This is the first time a nominee for Deputy Attorney General has ever been filibustered, and tonight Republicans made history for all the wrong reasons.

“This is not the time to play partisan games with our nation’s safety. James Cole has broad, bipartisan support from former federal prosecutors, district attorney and criminal defense organizations and high-ranking public officials. He’s qualified for the job, he already performs today and I’m highly disappointed that Republicans have been stalling on this crucial confirmation for nearly a year.”

“In the same week that the men and women of our intelligence community are using fresh evidence to track down al Qaeda, Republicans are blocking us from confirming the man who signs the warrants they need to hunt down terrorists.

“The Deputy Attorney General oversees the Department of Justice National Security Division, and he authorizes critical intelligence and law enforcement efforts to identify and disrupt terrorist plots. It is dangerous for Republicans to hold up a key member of the President’s national security team. This is the first time a nominee for Deputy Attorney General has ever been filibustered, and tonight Republicans made history for all the wrong reasons.

“This is not the time to play partisan games with our nation’s safety. James Cole has broad, bipartisan support from former federal prosecutors, district attorney and criminal defense organizations and high-ranking public officials. He’s qualified for the job, he already performs today and I’m highly disappointed that Republicans have been stalling on this crucial confirmation for nearly a year.”

“Late last night we learned the news we’d been longing to hear since the worst morning in our memory: an American operation brought Osama bin Laden to justice.

“This was an American mission – ordered by President Obama and accomplished by America’s brave and brilliant military and intelligence professionals.

“Last night’s news stunned the world – but this operation’s success should surprise no one.  America’s special forces and intelligence operatives are the best – the best trained, the best equipped, the best led.  Every day of every year, they risk their lives for our sake, for our safety.

“They are the most professional and proficient forces on the planet, and yesterday they brought down the most wanted mass murderer on Earth.

“Their success is the most significant victory yet in our fight against Al Qaeda and terrorism.  It sends a strong and unmistakable message to terrorists who threaten our country, our people and our interests.

“This success is a direct result of President Obama’s leadership, from the national-security priorities he outlined when he took office to the green light he gave our forces this weekend.

“President Obama insisted that we refocus on Afghanistan and Pakistan as the central battlefields in our fight against terrorism.  Those tremendous military, diplomatic, intelligence and economic efforts are the reason we woke up this morning in a world that is no longer home to Osama bin Laden.

“But the end of his life is not the end of this fight.  Yesterday’s operation is indeed a measure of justice.  But it is only one measure of justice.  It absolutely is a definitive victory, but it does not define absolute victory.

“America welcomes the success of our fellow citizens’ extraordinary mission.  Even as we breathe a sigh of relief, though, we are not relieved of our duty to be vigilant, to be persistent, to defeat our enemy and to make our nation stronger.

“The leader of Al Qaeda is gone, but his organization is not.  We know our enemy is widespread and motivated – and the truth is, it may be more motivated today than it was yesterday.

“Our troops continue to fight.  Our intelligence professionals continue to work.  Their families continue to sacrifice.  We continue to support all of them, and each other.

“We also pause today to once again lend a shoulder to those whose grief never ends – not with time, not with bin Laden’s demise, not ever.

“This significant measure of justice is but a small measure of comfort to those who lost loved ones at bin Laden’s direction – in America and around the world, in New York and Virginia and Pennsylvania, aboard the U.S.S. Cole, at American embassies in Africa, on trains in London and Madrid, and in so many other places.

“Bin Laden’s death does not bring back the thousands of innocent people his thugs killed, or make whole families that will forever be incomplete.

“But it is an important milestone that reminds the world America does not suffer the wicked and will not submit to evil.  Our resolve is strengthened when it is challenged, and our unity – though it, too, is often tested – is unbreakable.

“Because of the hard work of courageous Americans in our military, intelligence, diplomatic and law-enforcement communities, a long and painful chapter in our nation’s history closed yesterday.  Today we welcome a spring of new optimism and renewed patriotism.

“The chapter now behind us ended with justice.  We hope the chapter ahead of us will bring security and peace.

“While the nation and the world absorb this crucial development, the work of the Senate continues.

“Today we begin a new month and a new work period and a new opportunity to come together to create jobs.

“I hope this month will be a productive one.  There are several important and time-sensitive items on our plate.

“One, I hope to wrap up the small-business jobs bill.  This has been on the floor for far too long, and we need to resolve it so we can move on to other matters.

“Two, we will have the same debate in the Senate that the American people are having at home.  That is the question of whether we should keep giving away money to oil companies who clearly don’t need taxpayer handouts.  That will be part of a larger debate we will continue having about how best to reduce our reliance on foreign oil and invest better and smarter in clean energy.

“Three, we will vote on the House-passed budget.  A majority of the House has embraced it, a majority of the American people has rejected it, and the Senate will soon have its say, too.

“Finally, we will confirm judicial nominees, many of whom have waited too long for the Senate to act.  If the minority forces us to file cloture on these nominees in order to get to a final vote, I will file cloture.  We cannot waste any more time or play these games any longer.  The country needs these empty benches filled.

“We also have other nominations to confirm, including the Attorney General’s top deputy, Jim Cole.

“The Deputy Attorney General runs the day-to-day operations of the Department of Justice.  He also is the person who signs the critical warrants that permit our intelligence officials to conduct surveillance on suspected terrorists.  But he can’t do that unless the Senate confirms him – so we must do that soon.

“Especially given last night’s developments, it is unthinkable that partisanship and legislative ploys are keeping a well-qualified nominee out of this important national-security role.

“A moment ago we began this remarkable new day in the Senate the same way we begin every day in session: with the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag.  Its closing words were the powerful closing words of President Obama’s address to the nation last night, and their meaning is even more profound today, the first day of this new era.

“Those words – ‘liberty and justice for all’ – represent America’s purpose.  This weekend, in the name and pursuit of liberty, heroic Americans halfway around the world secured justice – for an evil man’s victims, for the survivors of his terror, for Americans, for our allies and for the entire world.  Liberty and justice, for all.”