Category: Todd Morrison
Intelligence Reform Makes Profound on Collins’ Career
WASHINGTON, Oct. 7, 2004 -Much as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have defined President Bush’s first term, so too has that event made an unmistakable mark on the political career of Sen. Susan Collins (R) of Maine.
“In terms of significance, this legislation ranks at the top,” Collins said moments after the Senate passed 96-2 the intelligence overhaul bill she had sponsored.
Now in the second year of her second term, Collins stood in front of a crowd of reporters moments after the Senate passed the bill that would dramatically alter the way the country’s intelligence community has been structured for more than half a century. It is a system she and others say utterly failed to prevent those attacks.
“This is really how the Senate should operate,” Collins said of the near-unanimous vote. “On an issue of such great significance to our country, we put aside partisan differences.”
Eyes now turn to the House, where the leadership has been criticized for sponsoring a controversial bill that departs in many important ways from the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations.
Collins’ own bill did not have an entirely smooth road to passage. During the last two weeks a handful of critics offered amendments to weaken the position of the national intelligence director, which the legislation would create. All were defeated, however and shortly after 5 P.M. Wednesday Senators filed by one by one to congratulate Collins, including Armed Services Committee chairman John Warner (R-Va.), saluted her on passage.
Having the support of some of those early skeptics, like Warner, Collins said, “meant a lot to me.”
Once the bill hit the Senate floor last Tuesday, Senators unleashed a torrent of amendments. So many amendments were proposed – over 250 at one point – that the Senate agreed early Tuesday to prevent new ones from coming to the floor.
Collins was successful in beating back virtually all of the “unfriendly” amendments.
Former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean (R), the chairman of the 9/11 Commission earlier praised Collins’ ability to keep the bill intact despite proposed amendments designed, in his view, to weaken its provisions.
“She’s fought off some amendments that were very destructive,” he said. “I can’t say enough good about her.”
The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which Collins chairs, ordinarily deals with less politically charged issues than intelligence reorganization, but legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security came through the committee, as did Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge’s confirmation. Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s also used a Governmental Affairs subcommittee for the anti-Communist hearings that made his reputation and led to his downfall.
Collins said the whole process had been exhausting, in particular the final two weeks, in which she was on the Senate floor virtually all day. In the evenings, she said, she would meet on the bill with other Senators and often traded e-mail messages with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.).
Rep. Tom Allen (D) of Maine commended the Senate bill, saying it was created in a “relatively bipartisan basis,” and faulted House GOP leaders for excluding Democrats as well as for adding provisions that he said would undermine civil liberties. “That’s the big issue,” he said.
Even so, Collins was optimistic. “I’m sure that the House will produce a bill that’s different from ours, but that’s what we have a conference committee for,” she said of the House and Senate negotiators who will have to reconcile the two bills. “I’m optimistic we’ll be able to work out those issues.”
Asked if the Senate’s passage of the bill would bring additional pressure on the more partisan House, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said that pressure from outside Congress might prove more persuasive.
“The White House is obviously very interested in us, in this bill. They’re not interested in extraneous provisions,” he said. “The White House does have some influence with the Republican-controlled House.”
The 9/11 Commission concluded that the 15 military and civilian intelligence agencies had failed to cooperate and thereby precluded efforts that might have prevented the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington.
It recommended creating the post of national intelligence director to control and coordinate all of the agencies, including budgetary control.
The Collins measure would establish that position but limit its control to nonmilitary agencies. It would also establish a national counterterrorism center
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Penobscot Indians Join Museum Tribute
WASHINGTON, Sept. 22, 2004-- For those who happened to be on the National Mall
Tuesday, there was a lot to look at. But among the thousands of colorful Native American costumes, members of the Penobscot Tribe brought something else that caught people's eyes, especially on dry land: a hand-made, 70-pound birch bark canoe.
During the procession of tribes that celebrated the opening of the new Indian museum, Chief Barry Dana and some others carried the canoe they said marked a return to forgotten traditions. For more than 12,000 years, he said, the tribe lived on the Penobscot River, and traveled up and down it. But over time, the custom of making the canoes fell away.
"It would be one thing to say well, we used to have birch bark canoes. And up until a couple of years ago, that's what we would have said. Now we have birch bark canoes 'cause we built them," he said. "To really know about it, you gotta do it."
The canoe is one of two used in the sacred annual trip up the Penobscot up to the base of Mount Katahdin, about 100 miles away, an event that begins with a fire at the tribe's graveyard on Indian Island.
The Smithsonian Institution, which oversees the museum, was impressed enough to ask the tribe if it would contribute the canoe to the new collection. The tribe does not have any items there - though numerous items are archived with the Department of Interior in Washington and will likely become a part of future exhibitions, one tribal member said. Even so, Dana said the tribe turned down the offer, because of the significance the canoe holds.
"We would be extremely happy to oblige them" on a future canoe, Dana said.
Though the day belonged to the opening of the new museum on the Mall, tribal member James Neptune said their own tiny museum on the Indian Island reservation, which was converted from an old Bureau of Indian Affairs office, shouldn't be overlooked. In fact, he said, they were hoping to get some of the items now at the Department of Interior, so that their own younger generations can see the items, without having to travel to Washington.
"To get a lot of these artifacts back would be very significant in helping us, helping our children to be proud of who they are," he said. "Some things should come back to us."
Collins Introduces Intelligence Legislation
WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2004 -- Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) yesterday announced a plan that she said would radically reform the nation's intelligence capabilities by creating a national intelligence director with the authority to oversee the country's numerous intelligence organizations, including the FBI and the CIA.
Collins chairs the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which is responsible for translating the 9-11 commission's ideas into legislation. "The 9-11 commission provided us with a great blueprint," she said.
She said that even in a rural state like Maine, with a long border and numerous other security challenges, security is critical.
"If you read the 9-11 commission report, you find that the very second paragraph talks about two of the terrorists starting their journey of death and destruction in Portland, Maine," said Collins. "And that reminds us that even smaller states are at risk in the war against terrorism."
She unveiled the plan with its co-author. Democrat Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, in a morning press conference at the Capitol.
"The work that the national intelligence director would be doing would have a definite impact on Maine because we are a border state with a large coastline," she said.
Collins said that the legislation would be finalized in time to be debated by the committee next week. Members of Congress plan to adjourn in about a month for an election break.
The legislation would centralize intelligence activities under the direction of a national intelligence director with authority over most of the government's intelligence gathering operations.
"I absolutely believe that we need to finish this year," said Collins. Congress may have to complete work on the legislation if Congress returns after the elections, she said.
A national intelligence director, an idea that is supported by the White House as well as Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, would have broad budgetary authority.
Without budgetary authority, the new position would be "just another layer of bureaucracy," Lieberman said. "Our purpose in producing this legislation is literally to upend the status quo in the American intelligence community," he said.
The Sept. 11 commission recommended such a position because they said the nation's fifteen intelligence agencies did not communicate among themselves to prevent the terrorist attacks in New York City and at the Pentagon. Collins spokeswoman Jen Burita said that they are receiving a significant response on the issue from constituents in the state. "The message that we are receiving from Mainers is 'act quickly on intelligence reform legislation.' "
Both Lieberman and Collins said their legislation was a bipartisan effort. They have been working with the White House, and have consulted with numerous administration officials, as well as families of Sept. 11 victims, they said.
House leaders said they hope to act on intelligence reform before Congress adjourns in October.
After the press conference, Collins told a group of reporters that she had been in close contact with those in the House of Representatives of both parties, as well as the Speaker, and was optimistic about the bill's chance of success in that body.
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