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EXTRACT FROM UNITED STATES SENATE HEARING
ON PASSING OF THE EXTENDED PATRIOT ACT
DATE: DECEMBER 6, 2025
LOCATION: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES SENATE CHAMBERS
PRESENT (IN TRANSCRIPT): U.S. SENATOR (DR) CAD DOOLEY – HEARING CHAIR; U.S. SENATOR (RR) FREDERICK KNEELY – HEARING PANEL; U.S. VICE PRESIDENT (RR) VINCENT K. (VINCE) MCELROY – WITNESS
HEARING WITNESS 46
VINCENT K. MCELROY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
[CAD DOOLEY]: Ah, I’d like to welcome everyone here today. We are here to continue the discussion on the passing of the Extended Patriot Act put forth by United States Vice President Vincent McElroy. Subsequent to that is the discussion on the re-appropriation of funds from the American Agriculture and Education Futures Program to the U.S. Military Defense budget. I welcome Witness 46, United States Vice President Vincent McElroy. Mister Vice President, thank you for being here today.
[VINCENT MCELROY]: Thank you, Senator Dooley.
[FREDERICK KNEELY]: Yes, thank you, Mister Vice President. Mister Chairman, I’d like to start with the questioning.
[CAD DOOLEY]: Very well, Senator Kneely.
[FREDERICK KNEELY]: Mister Vice President, could you please explain to this panel what this money—some 50 billion dollars—would be used for under a defense budget scheme, should the Extended Patriot Act be passed?
[VINCENT MCELROY]: I can, Senator. We have an ongoing security crisis in this country. The funding would be used to reinforce the UAV Command facility in the west, as well as construct a UAV Command facility in the east. We are also looking to invest in a number of future technologies for defense purposes. The future presents a whole lot of challenges for our country, Senator. And I plan on being ready to meet those challenges head on.
[FREDERICK KNEELY]: So then, this is all necessary for national defense, sir?
[VINCENT MCELROY]: It is as necessary as anything else, yes.
[CAD DOOLEY]: Uh, Senator Kneely, excuse me, but we aren’t here today for you to spoon-feed the Vice President. Sir, are you telling me you believe bullets are as necessary as food and clean water?
[VINCENT MCELROY]: I believe if those bullets keep you and your family safe at night, then yes, they are as necessary.
[CAD DOOLEY]: Oh, well, I am so very happy that you are looking out for our welfare. Mister Vice President, don’t you think our country’s economic and agricultural situations are just as—if not more vulnerable than—our defense situation? We are already seeing the early signs of a food crisis, and it is almost a unanimous belief among the Fortune 500 that we are headed for an inevitable economic depression.
[VINCENT MCELROY]: I am not here to speculate on what might happen, Senator Dooley, although I stand by my belief that those figures are bloated and meant to incite fear. Our nation’s economy remains the most viable and diversified in the world, and I can assure you that we will continue to have food to feed our children every night, Senator.
[CAD DOOLEY]: There are many who do not share your optimism. I fail to see how you can make any assurances as to our economic or agricultural viability in the future, given the current state our nation is in. Anyway, the main issue here is the passage or declination of the Extended Patriot Act. You bring before this committee, and this Senate, a bill that quite frankly terrifies me. You are, in effect, asking the Senate to grant virtually unlimited powers to the federal government. To start with, do you deny this?
[VINCENT MCELROY]: Well, the bill itself would not make the federal government all-powerful as you assert. It would grant the federal government extended powers during times of war to protect the nation against growing terrorist threats.
[CAD DOOLEY]: Would this bill ever be used against its own citizens?
[VINCENT MCELROY]: Excuse me?
[CAD DOOLEY]: I asked you if this bill would ever be used against citizens of the United States.
[VINCENT MCELROY]: I’m afraid I don’t quite understand. This bill was written to protect United States citizens.
[CAD DOOLEY]: So, you’re playin’ hardball?
[VINCENT MCELROY]: I’m simply here to answer your questions, Senator Dooley.
[CAD DOOLEY]: This bill provides the President with the authority to circumvent Congressional filibuster. True or false?
[VINCENT MCELROY]: If that is what the bill says.
[CAD DOOLEY]: You should know. You wrote it. This bill provides the military with the authority to perform surveillance and search and seizure without warrant. True or false?
[VINCENT MCELROY]: This bill is, again, written purely for times of national emergency.
[CAD DOOLEY]: May the record reflect the witness’s refusal to answer the previous two questions. Mister Vice President, this bill will allow the President to declare a National State of Emergency under any circumstance he or she so choses. True or false?
[VINCENT MCELROY]: If that is what it says.
[CAD DOOLEY]: There are in total eleven separate groups of Executive Orders under this proposed act. They include water, agriculture, power, financial systems, modes of transport—ground, seaports, airports, and railways, telecommunications, legal systems, intelligence, government agencies, individual liberties, and citizen conscription, enlistment, and mobilization.
[VINCENT MCELROY]: Was there a question in there for me?
[CAD DOOLEY]: This bill allows the federal government to take over all modes of transportation, and grants it full control of all highways and seaports. True or false?
[VINCENT MCELROY]: I haven’t got them all memorized, Senator.
[CAD DOOLEY]: This bill allows the federal government to seize all communication media in the United States. True or false, sir?
[VINCENT MCELROY]: If you say so, Senator.
[FREDERICK KNEELY]: Senator Dooley, I think you have made your point.
[CAD DOOLEY]: I am the chairman of this committee, not you, Senator Kneely. This bill allows the federal government to seize all electrical power, solar power, wind-generated power, gas, petroleum, fuels and minerals, and any other unnamed source of power or energy in the United States, both public and private. Is this true or false, Mister Vice President?
[VINCENT MCELROY]: (No response)
[CAD DOOLEY]: This bill allows the federal government to seize all food resources, including farms, both public and private. It allows the federal government to mobilize civilians, under government seizure, into work brigades under government supervision. It allows the federal government to seize and control all health, education, and welfare functions and facilities. It grants the federal government leave to designate the Postmaster General to operate a national registry of all persons. It allows the federal government to seize all airports and aircraft, including commercial and private craft. It allows the federal government to direct the Department of National Security in relocating communities, building new housing with public or private funds, designating areas to be abandoned, and establishing new locations for populations of unspecified numbers indefinitely. It allows the federal government to seize all railroads, inland waterways, and public storage facilities.
(Shuffles papers)
Now, to continue. The bill specifies the responsibility of the Office of Emergency Planning and gives authorization to put all Executive Orders into effect in times of increased international tensions and economic or financial crisis. It grants authority to the Department of Justice to enforce the plans set out in Executive Orders, to institute industrial support, to establish judicial and legislative liaison, to control all aliens, to operate penal and correctional institutions, and to advise and assist the President. It allows the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency to develop plans to establish control over the mechanisms of production and distribution, of energy sources, wages, salaries, credit, and the flow of money in the United States financial institutions in any undefined national emergency. It also provides that when a National State of Emergency is declared by t
he President, Congress cannot review the action for six months.
(Folds papers, pauses)
Mister Vice President. This bill, the Extended Patriot Act, allows the President to circumvent, at his or her discretion, numerous laws, thus allowing the President to declare a National State of Emergency at his or her discretion, to circumvent any acting government body in the nation, and to take full control of all mechanisms of function of the entire nation, be it public, commercial, or private. Is this true or false?
[VINCENT MCELROY]: This bill is designed to protect the United States against foreign threats. I am not in the business of speculation pertaining to what might happen, or what another person could or could not do while occupying the Presidency.
[CAD DOOLEY]: So this bill could, in the wrong hands, give a President unlimited powers? I am speaking hypothetically.
[FREDERICK KNEELY]: I believe the question has already been answered.
[VINCENT MCELROY]: I said it before and I’ll say it again. I am not in the business of speculation, Senator Dooley.
[CAD DOOLEY]: Understood. Then since you won’t answer, I request permission to read a portion of testimony from trial witness 26. Witness 26 is Professor Dr. Arthur Browning. Professor Browning is the founder and current Director of the Center for Catastrophe Studies at Stanford University. He is widely considered the world’s foremost authority on scientific inquiry into modes and mechanisms, execution, and impacts of catastrophe situations of various magnitudes. I assume you are familiar with Professor Browning, Mister Vice President?
[VINCENT MCELROY]: I have heard of him, yes.
[CAD DOOLEY]: When asked about the Extended Patriot Act and its potential consequences, he said the following:
(Begin Quote): “We are at an unprecedented period in human history, whereby a national government is on the precipice of attaining more power than any government ever. What is most concerning to citizens of both the Union and the rest of the planet is this particular government’s access to, manipulation of, and control over the world’s resources. The decisions the Union makes has a profound impact on the rest of the world.
If the Extended Patriot Act were to pass, there would be virtually no stopping the federal government from doing as they wished, rendering them essentially unstoppable.” (End Quote)
Mister Vice President. Don’t you think this bill is a bit too dangerous? Don’t you think that instead of defense spending, we should be looking towards improving our agricultural base and domestic economy?
[VINCENT MCELROY]: I believe this bill is the top priority of our government. I believe this is what our nation wants and needs the most right now.
[CAD DOOLEY]: Well then. (folds papers, closes folder) I do believe this bill will pass. And I’d just like to go on record as saying I think this is a terrible idea, and will be a terrible decision on the part of the U.S. Congress. I’d also like to add, for the record, one more small piece of testimony from Professor Browning.
(Begin Quote): “Should the Extended Patriot Act be written into law, it will change the way the heart of this nation beats. It will pollute the air we breathe, it will contaminate the water we drink. It will change the very DNA of this nation, and indeed the planet.” (End Quote)
END OF TRANSCRIPT
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December, 2025
Looking north through a window of his room in Primus Casino, Rufus was able to imagine a bustling Las Vegas—the Strip a waterfall cascading with cars interrupted with streams of drunken people, neon lights demanding attention, swimming pools full of tourists, buskers practicing their craft along the crowded sidewalks. In his head, he could hear any one of the thousands of pointless conversations he’d heard in these casino corridors, in the elevators, on the gambling floor. He could probably convince himself that he could go over to the sink and pour himself a tall glass of water.
A fire seen through the broken glass of a room on the fiftieth floor of the tall abandoned casino on the north side of the Strip refuted all of those silly notions at once, bringing Rufus back to where he actually was.
He turned at the sound of the bot’s creaky wheels. Wilson placed a folder into the front sleeve of the bot and sent it towards Rufus. Wilson was studying diagrams at the far end of the room, the dusty tables in front of him covered with perfectly aligned stacks of papers.
The bot stopped in front of Rufus’s desk, and Rufus pulled the folder from the sleeve. Grabbing the binoculars off the corner of his desk, he walked back to the window, opening the folder and perusing the map.
“The convoy will take I-15 out of the city, then I-70 all the way to the camp in Denver.” Wilson was making his way across the room, somehow simultaneously studying information from four different sheets of paper across two hands. Rufus wasn’t sure how he did that. Wilson stopped in front of the desk, as if to ask a question.
“They have a lot of open territory to cover before they get to Denver,” Rufus said, turning his gaze back to the window.
“The Army will be with them.”
Rufus put the map back into the folder and tossed it onto the desk. He held the binoculars up and looked down upon the city, his city. The convoy looked like a snake, trailing along East Tropicana Avenue, its tail Rufus was unable to find, wrapping around the staging area at the corner to head north along Las Vegas Boulevard, bending northeast with the bend in the Strip. Rufus imagined the head of the snake pointing out into the desert, its destination unknown.
Rufus looked to his watch. 5:12 PM. “The convoy will take a while to get out of the city.”
Wilson walked around the desk. “Yes, sir, Mister Mayor.”
Rufus adjusted the watch around his wrist. “Not for another forty-eight minutes.” He zoomed the binoculars in to run along the convoy vehicles. A wide, dry smile formed. “It always amuses me, Wilson.”
“What’s that, sir?”
“The shit people choose to take with them.” He focused his gaze on a sport utility vehicle, outdoor chairs strapped to the roof, a tall umbrella sticking out of a window, bags and bags of shit stuffed into the back—as though any of those things would save their owners, as though those owners ever hoped to bring them back to Las Vegas one day and set them back up in their green lawn. “Fuckin’ grass lawns, Wilson. How the fuck did they ever expect that to last?”
“I guess it made them feel normal.”
Rufus looked from the binoculars for a moment. He’d never considered that. “You know what? That makes a lot of sense. Huh.” He scanned the south side of one of the abandoned casinos. It looked somewhat like a checkerboard at the top, workers busily stripping the window tint. The very top floor was already being fitted as a greenhouse, blinds from abandoned houses being installed. He scanned along the top floor windows until he saw green. Zooming a little further, he saw what looked like a pea plant scaling up a trellis just back from the window. He couldn’t force back the smile.
“It sure is a nice day.” Wilson’s small talk interruption annoyed Rufus. He looked down to the front receiving area of the casino. Trucks returned from their scout of the residential areas, a group ready to offload anything useful for city operations. Another group sorted through the remainder, team leaders assigning locations for buckets, jeans, plastic bottles. A woman checked the level in a water tank on the side of the building.
“Any word on the Idaho boys?” Rufus said, scanning the horizon.
“None yet. They were expected this morning.”
“I know that. And Los Angeles?”
“The Union is sending two hundred unemployed cops over next week.”
“That’s not soon enough. I want them here in two days.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Let’s head down.” Rufus placed the binoculars on the desk.
A guard greeted them and called the elevator.
Rufus pressed the ‘G’ button. “You ever been to Moab, Wilson?”
“No?” He seemed annoyed with the question.
“It’s quite
the place. I hiked to the bottom of a canyon out that way once, then spent two days doing LSD and shooting imaginary planes from the sky. When the rangers found me, I was nearly dead.”
“Why?”
“How can you really know yourself without testing your limits?” Rufus leaned against the doors, dismissive of the exchange, studying the map in more detail. “So this is it, then?”
“Five-twenty PM,” the bot rattled in a worn voice that made Rufus think of rust. The elevator they rode had never been finished, exposed wires and rough sheetrock where fancy, tacky casino paneling should have been.
Studying the bot, Rufus thought it looked at home among the wires and steel and buttons. And if the elevator got stuck, the bot would not complain. “Wilson, do you ever feel that maybe we got it wrong?”
“What do you mean?” Wilson didn’t look up from his papers.
At once, for some unknown reason, Rufus disliked his metal assistant. “Nothing.”
The elevator stopped and the doors opened. The smell of diesel fumes and garbage and burnt garbage made Rufus feel at home. “Wilson, I’d like to have a look at the staging point.”
Wilson looked up as though to protest, then thinking better of it, motioned for a car.
Rufus felt eerie driving north in the southbound lanes of the Vegas Strip. The evacuees mostly stood outside of their vehicles, waiting for the convoy to leave and take them to safety.
“Poor people,” Wilson said.
“Lambs waiting for the slaughter.” Perhaps it was the steadiness in Rufus’s voice that made Wilson snap his head around. “What?”
Wilson looked to the ground. “Nothing, I just don’t see how you can be so cold towards them.”
“I see the world for what it really is. This alone makes me cold?” Wilson shook his head and turned to look at the convoy line. “Man the fuck up, Wilson. Speak your mind.”
“These people didn’t ask for this.”
Rufus pulled to a stop at the staging point. “These people have had it far too good. They’ve scraped by on the back of a fractured system.”
PreWar Earth: Volume 1 (Next Earth Story) Page 6
