As people across the country cope with new security-related airport delays, the latest high-profile terrorist plot is also drawing reaction from members of Congress.
“Today, we are grateful for the ongoing vigilance of our allies and our intelligence professionals in the fight against terrorism,” said Rep. David Price, D-N.C., in a statement posted on his web site Aug. 10. “A number of would-be terrorists have been apprehended by British authorities before their sinister plot could have unfolded.”
The “sinister plot” involved plans to use liquid explosives to blow up as many as 10 airliners bound for the United States from Britain. Reaction on both sides of the Atlantic included increased security measures, which led to lengthy airport delays.
Authorities said the plot could have led to the most conspicuous act of terror since Sept. 11, 2001. But Price’s chief of staff told Carolina Journal the plot has not prompted Price to rethink his opposition to renewing the USA PATRIOT Act.
Other members of the N.C. congressional delegation have concerns about the public’s attitude toward terrorism.
“I am very concerned that the American people do not understand that we are in a war — a war with terrorists, a worldwide war,” Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx said at a recent Civitas Institute luncheon in Raleigh. “And that troubles me a great deal. I think the inability to accept that at the level to which it should be accepted is coloring a lot of what’s happening in this country.”
Initially passed in the weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the PATRIOT Act amended laws targeting issues such as immigration, banking, and money laundering. It also created a new crime of “domestic terrorism.” Supporters cited the need to take new steps to fight a terrorist threat. Opponents contended that the act threatened Americans’ freedom from government intrusion.
Congress overwhelmingly supported the original PATRIOT Act, but the N.C. delegation split on efforts to reauthorize the act during the past year. Price and Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., were the only members of the state’s delegation to vote against reauthorization in July 2005. The other 11 N.C. representatives voted “yes” as the House approved the measure, 257-171.
Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C., touted the bill in a speech on the House floor. “I am not trying to be a Chicken Little and shouting that the sky is falling,” he said, “but just because we have not been attacked subsequently since 9/11 does not indicate to me that these terrorists — I call them murderers, they are murderers — are asleep at the switch. They are continuing to plot, and we cannot turn a blind eye to them.”
The voting pattern changed when an amended bill returned to the House in December. All six House Democrats supported a motion to return the PATRIOT Act to the conference committee working out differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill.
The House rejected that “motion to recommit” by a vote of 224-202. Then the N.C. delegation split 8-5 when House leaders put the PATRIOT Act up for another vote. Democratic Rep. G. K. Butterfield and Republican Reps. Walter Jones and Charles Taylor joined Price and Watt in casting “no” votes.
Butterfield still stands behind that vote. In a statement to Carolina Journal, he said there are still more effective ways to keep America secure.
“We need to strengthen our homeland defenses and give law enforcement and intelligence agencies the tools they need to fight terrorists, but that does not mean we should give up our civil liberties,” Butterfield said. “So far, the PATRIOT Act has failed to demonstrate any impact on terrorism.”
Watt is traveling overseas this week. He could not be reached for comment. In December, he had cited his fears about the loss of individual rights. “I certainly favor protecting our country against attacks from people or groups plotting to do our citizens harm,” he said in a news release, “but we must not require the American people to sacrifice their right of privacy to trample the principles underlying the individual rights of each citizen in the name of fighting terrorism.”
Even with three additional “no” votes from the N.C. delegation in December, the House approved the reauthorized PATRIOT Act, 251-174. Three months later, both N.C. senators, Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr, voted for the legislation as it moved through that chamber, 89-10.
House members had one last chance to address the PATRIOT Act in early March, when they considered amendments to the final package. The N.C. delegation voted 9-4 in favor of that amendments bill, with Butterfield, Jones, Price, and Watt casting the “no” votes.
Jones declined comment for this story. As the only N.C. Republican to cast a “no” vote in March, he issued a news release explaining his action. The release said Jones “joined 12 conservative members” in rejecting the bill, “to voice disappointment with several aspects of” the final plan.
“One of my greatest concerns with [the bill] is that it includes 10-year sunset provisions in its renewal of the USA PATRIOT Act,” Jones said in the release. “Four-year sunset provisions are a better alternative for allowing Congress to revisit the expanded police powers provided by the PATRIOT Act to verify that these expanded authorities remain necessary.”
Jones also raised concerns this summer when the House debated a resolution to declare “the United States will prevail in the Global War on Terror.” Eight N.C. House members voted for the resolution, while Butterfield, Price, and Watt voted “no.” Meanwhile, Jones and Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., voted “present.”
“I could not vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ … because a resolution to merely ‘declare that the United States will prevail’ in a ‘noble struggle’ misses the point,” Jones said in a June 16 news release. “A ‘yes’ or ‘no’ vote would have legitimized an effort to effectively avoid the subject.”
Others had no problem joining the House majority that supported the resolution. “This resolution makes clear that the American people are determined to prevail in protecting our freedoms from terrorists,” Foxx said.
Mitch Kokai is associate editor of Carolina Journal.