A Republican leader who was quick to vote for the USA PATRIOT Act following the 9/11 attacks is now saying that legislators should think twice about making policy in the wake of disasters.

Fox News' Chris Wallace Sunday asked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell if the nuclear disaster in Japan had caused him to have second thoughts about his desire to build nuclear plants in the U.S.

"I don't think right after a major environmental catastrophe is a very good time to be making American domestic policy," McConnell said.

"My thought about it is, we ought not to make American and domestic policy based on an event that happened in Japan and we ought to concentrate on helping the Japanese get past this catastrophe."

McConnell was one of 98 senators that voted to pass the PATRIOT Act less than two months after 9/11.