House Votes on Intelligence Bill
WASHINGTON, Dec 7,2004-The House, after several false starts, was expected to give its final approval Tuesday night to legislation designed to implement the 9-11 Commission’s recommendations for a national intelligence revamping.
While the final vote occurred after the Times’ deadline, the Senate was expected to easily pass it Wednesday. The bill would constitute the biggest overhaul of the U.S. intelligence network since the end of World War II.
“I am pleased that at long last Congress has stepped forward with a bill that provides congressional reform and intelligence community overhaul that will provide the safety and security for the American people,” said Congressman John F. Tierney (D-Salem).
The House vote marked the end of a month-long stalemate spurred by two influential House chairmen who led the charge against a Senate-passed compromise measure that President Bush and an apparent majority of the House had favored.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) had insisted that the original bill’s establishment of the post of national intelligence director would interfere with the Pentagon’s chain of command and would obstruct the military’s ability to get vital information. House Judiciary Committee Chairman, F. James Sensenbrenner opposed the original bill because it did not include measures to control illegal immigration.
The final version of the bill included language intended to allay Hunter’s concerns about the national intelligence director’s authority by guaranteeing battlefield commanders access to top-secret information.
Congressman Tierney said in an interview Tuesday that he did not think the new language substantively changed the original bill. He added that he suspected Hunter’s true aim was less budgetary control for the new national intelligence director. Tierney supports full budget authority, and said that was not changed in the new bill.
While the new bill also does not address Sensenbrenner’s efforts to deny driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants and impose other restrictions on the immigrants, President Bush sent a letter to House members promising to address illegal immigration issues early in the New Year.
Tierney said he and others believed Sensenbrenner’s concerns could be dealt with at a later date.
The July release of the commission’s report prompted legislation aimed at better safeguarding America from terrorism, chiefly by creating a centralized national intelligence director and a national counterterrorism center and by granting more funds for border control agents and detention facilities.
The Senate’s version of the bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), passed overwhelmingly early this fall. The House passed a GOP-drafted version along party lines, but were unable to reach a compromise with Senate negotiators before the election.
When they did reach a post-election compromise during the pre-Thanksgiving lame-duck session Hunter and Sensenbrenner objected. Although House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert supported the bill he refrained from sending it to the floor without the approval of a majority of Republicans.
“That they didn’t have a majority of a majority voting for it . that’s what concerned me: when partisanship is put ahead” of the good of the country, Tierney said of Hastert’s refusal to bring the bill to a vote. The Salem Democrat said times like these require congressmen to “put aside that kind of stuff.”
Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) issued a similar statement Tuesday. “Shameful political games and stonewalling by House Republicans and complicit Administration officials have stood in the way of desperately needed intelligence reform for too long,” Kerry said.
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