Patriot Act: America needs strong tools to effectively deal with terrorism.

As the Fourth of July approaches, some Americans appear to be suffering from amnesia.

With dramatic headlines such as "Ripping Pages from the Book of Civil Liberties," "Patriot Act Fosters Secrecy, Government Abuse" and "Keep Big Brother at Bay," editorial writers and columnists around the country unfairly criticize legislation that has helped keep America safe since Sept. 11, 2001.

A few weeks ago, the U.S. House of Representatives rejected a proposal to make it easier for FBI officials to obtain information about suspected terrorists that could help prevent a future attack.

What is going on here?

Consider the lyrics of country music artist Darryl Worley's song, "Have You Forgotten?"

Have you forgotten how it felt that day?

To see your homeland under fire

And her people blown away.

Have you forgotten when those towers fell?

We had neighbors still inside going through a living hell

It appears that some editorial writers and members of Congress have forgotten. And they are not alone. Fewer Americans -- only 35 percent -- now fear another terrorist attack in the near future than at any time since 9-11, according to a recent USA Today/CNN/ Gallup poll. Despite their complacency, the threat of terrorism continues. And surely there is no more important public purpose than keeping America safe from another catastrophic terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

To accomplish that, Congress should reauthorize the Patriot Act quickly and expand it to give law enforcement more tools to go after suspected terrorists and prevent terrorist attacks.

The 9-11 attacks showed the failure of a number of legal and regulatory policies that kept the intelligence and law enforcement communities from talking to each other and sharing information on investigations of suspected terrorists. Congress acted quickly to correct the flaws through the Patriot Act.

The new law also gave the police and FBI permission to use many of the same investigative tools against foreign terrorists that they were already using against other criminals. Amazingly, law enforcement could use wiretaps and track the records of drug dealers and tax evaders but did not have the same authority for terror investigations.

The Patriot Act works. Since its enactment, we have seen significant progress in communication and cooperation between the law enforcement and intelligence communities, leading to the arrest of more than 400 suspected terrorists and the conviction of more than 200. Patriot Act provisions have been used by law enforcement to break up terrorist cells in New York, Virginia, Florida and Oregon. Most recently, the Patriot Act made possible the arrest and indictment of a father and son in Lodi, Calif., for lying to federal agents about the son's attendance at an al-Qaida terrorist training camp.

Important provisions of the Patriot Act expire this year. The intelligence committees in both the House and Senate drafted legislation to extend the expiring provisions of the Patriot Act and to enhance further law enforcement's ability to fight suspected terrorists. Some members of Congress seek to curtail feared FBI excesses and have questioned the need for permanently authorizing the legislation.

Paradoxically, they are criticizing the very provisions that may prevent attacks in the future.

For instance, administrative subpoenas allow the FBI to search a variety of personal records about suspected terrorists with permission from the federal Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Opponents complain that the FBI will use this authority to conduct "fishing expeditions" into a person's library records, for example.

Their argument ignores two important facts. First, administrative subpoenas are already allowed for 335 other types of investigations, including drug trafficking, child pornography and health-care fraud. With so much at stake, why should terrorism investigators have fewer tools available to them than those investigating other crimes?

Critics seem to forget that some of the 9-11 terrorists reserved and bought tickets on the airplanes they later hijacked using Internet access at public libraries. And second, there have been no substantiated allegations of FBI abuse of its power under the Patriot Act since it was signed into law. None.

We should not let the success of our intelligence and law enforcement agencies in preventing another terrorist attack -- in part because of the Patriot Act -- lull us into a sense of complacency. As we celebrate the Fourth of July holiday, let us not forget that our ideals and freedoms will not survive unless we are willing to protect them. Members of Congress should stop focusing on the bogeymen of the FBI and CIA and train their sights on stopping the very real Osama bin Laden and other dangerous terrorists. We should complete our work on the Patriot Act and send it to the president this summer.

Kit Bond represents Missouri in the U.S. Senate, where he is a member of the Select Committee on Intelligence.