Tom Daschle

Good morning and welcome to the White House. Today, we take an essential step in defeating terrorism while protecting the constitutional rights of of all Americans.

With my signature, this law will give intelligence and law enforcement officials important new tools to fight a present danger.

Our country is grateful for the courage the Postal Service has shown during these difficult times. We mourn the loss of the lives of Thomas Morris and Joseph Kersine, postal workers who died in the line of duty. And our prayers go to their loved ones. But one thing is for certain. These terrorists must be pursued. They must be defeated. And they must be brought to justice.

And that is the purpose of this legislation.

The anthrax attack just further exacerbated our anxious and very deeply troubling perspective as we considered just how best to defend the country and ourselves. We felt the need to act in large measure because of the grave concern we had about another attack sometime soon.

We did the best we could given the circumstances we had, but that balance between security and privacy will be an ongoing one for decades to come.

My chief of staff told me I better sit down because an intern had just opened up an envelope in my Senate office.

This aerosolable anthrax had pervasively covered and got into the atmosphere around her. There were, I think, 27 people at the time in the office and they were all exposed.

I just talked to Leader Daschle. His office received a letter and it had anthrax in it. The staffers that have been exposed are being treated.

We cannot let the terrorists achieve the objective of frightening our nation to the point where we don't conduct business, where people don't shop. That's their intention. Their intention was not only to kill and maim and destroy, their intention was to frighten to the point where our nation would not act.

It's just very, very intense. There was a daily, hourly cacophony of voices and ideas and demands.

The Bush administration was pressing Congress very hard, saying it was urgent.