Families Make Final Call for Intel Reform
By Dori Berman
WASHINGTON, November 30, 2004-Families of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will hold vigils this week in several cities nationwide urging House Republican leaders to allow the stalled intelligence reform bill to come to the floor for debate and a vote when Congress returns for a second lame-duck session next week.
“All of us hoped that by now.America would have the legislation it needs to prevent future attacks,” said 9/11 Family Steering Committee member Mary Fetchet. She expressed concern that, because of turf battles in the House, Americans remain vulnerable.
Fetchet, a New Canaan resident whose 24-year-old son, Brad, died in the attacks on the World Trade Center, appeared Tuesday at a press conference with Reps. Chris Shays (R-Conn.) and Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and several other 9/11 family members. The family members have appeared with Shays and Maloney numerous times throughout the past several months to urge Congress to pass a bill adopting the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.
The vigils will take place Wednesday through Sunday in Boston, Los Angeles and New York from noon to 1 p.m. each day. The New York vigils, which Fetchet will attend, will be held at Ground Zero.
During the vigils, the family members will seek signatures on petitions urging Congress to act on the intelligence legislation when it returns to Washington Monday.
Shays, who has been a strong proponent of a bill that adheres to the 9/11 Commission recommendations, plans to speak during the Wednesday vigil at Ground Zero.
Separate bills were introduced in the House and Senate following the release of the 9/11 Commission’s report last summer.
The Senate bill mirrored the Commission’s recommendations, while the House bill adopted some of the recommendations but also included provisions that opponents of the House version considered extraneous. Both bills would establish a national intelligence director and a national counter-terrorism center.
A conference committee reached agreement on the bill during the lame-duck session before Thanksgiving. But Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) kept the bill from reaching the House floor in response to pressure from some House Republican opponents of the compromise measure.
House Armed Services Committee chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) expressed concern that the bill would complicate the flow of intelligence to troops in the field, while House Judiciary Committee chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) said he wanted the bill to contain provisions denying drivers’ licenses to illegal immigrants and requiring those immigrants to carry federal identification cards.
“None of us would ask Congressman Sensenbrenner or Congressman Hunter to vote for a bill they don’t believe in,” Shays said at the Tuesday press conference, adding that he is asking them only to allow floor debate on the bill.
Shays wrote a letter to Sensenbrenner Monday urging him to allow the legislation to move forward.
“I wholeheartedly agree with your well-known position on drivers’ license reform,” Shays wrote. He added, “In January, the Republican leadership will enjoy its greatest majority in Congress since the 1920s. I see no reason why our majority could not proceed with the drivers’ license and other immigration reforms at that time.”
