Category: Kendra Gilbert
Bass, Bradley Score Big with Environment
Score
New Hampshire Union Leader
Kendra Gilbert
Boston University Washington News Service
10-11-06
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 – The League of Conservation Voters’ 2006 environmental scorecards are out, and all four members of the New Hampshire delegation show improvement.
Republican Reps. Charlie Bass and Jeb Bradley scored much higher this year than they did last year on the annual report, which was published Wednesday, by the league, an environmental advocacy group.
This year, Bradley scored an 83 percent, up from 44 percent last year. Bass’ score improved from 33 percent last year to 67 percent. The league ranked the congressmen based on how they voted on several key environmental issues.
Gene Karpinski, president of the league, said that his organization “commends Reps. Bradley and Bass for their voting records to protect the environment and the health and safety of New Hampshire families.”
“It is important to me that we protect our environment and wild areas of land in our state,” Bradley said in a statement.
Bass echoed his fellow congressman, saying: “preserving our natural resources for future generations has always been a priority of mine.”
Gene Karpinski, president of the League, said that the league “commends Reps. Bradley and Bass for their voting records to protect the environment and the health and safety of New Hampshire families.” in a statement.
Nationally, members of the House scored 48 percent.
New Hampshire senators also showed improvement. Sens. John Sununu and Judd Gregg each scored a 43 percent on this year’s scorecard, which put them just under that national average for senators of 45 percent.
Last year, Gregg received a grade of 30 percent, while Sununu earned a mark of 40 percent.
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A Room With A View — And A Tax
Tax
New Hampshire Union Leader
Kendra Gilbert
Boston University Washington News Service
10-11-06
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 – A view from the top – or any view, for that matter – no longer comes cheap. Not, at least, in New Hampshire.
Tom Thomson, an Orford tree farmer, brought his complaint about the Granite State’s “view assessment” on residential properties to the nation’s capital Wednesday, making it the focus of a discussion at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
In New Hampshire, Thomson said in his presentation, “it’s views, views, views.” And assessors have latched onto that, he said.
Thomson spoke to a group of roughly 20 people, from congressional aides to members of the foundation and others with interests in New Hampshire’s taxing dispute.
“We’re always very concerned about property rights,” said John Hilboldt, director of lectures and seminars at the Heritage Foundation.
Every five years, residential properties in New Hampshire come up for reassessment. The evaluations are often handled by assessment firms working under contract to individual cities, which assess a property based on four criteria: structure, land, waterfront and view.
“At least when you have waterfront [property], you own that,” Thomson’s wife, Sheila, said after the presentation.
Thomson, son of three-term New Hampshire governor Meldrim Thomson Jr., first got involved with the issue last year, when his family’s 250-acre Orford farm came up for assessment. Its view was valued at $10,000, thus increasing the annual taxes Thomson must pay on the land.
That same year, the Mount Cube farm Thomson grew up on —and where his mother still lives -- had its view assessed at $100,000.
Thomson bemoaned what he said was the lack of guidelines in determining what exactly a view is and how much it is worth.
Thomson showed slides of properties in New Hampshire, all with varying views, and cited the assessments on those views. A home near a recreational sports field used by children earned the same view assessment as a home with a more picturesque mountain view.
“It’s so subjective,” Thomson said in an interview after the presentation. “You could have 10 people come up with 10 ideas of what a view is. You couple that with you’re looking at something that doesn’t belong to you and you have no control over it.”
Thomson said assessors he spoke with often used what they called the “wow” factor to determine how much a view was worth.
“If you’re going to have any kind of assessment on a view, which I don’t believe you should, it cannot be done unless you have a clear concise definition on what a view is,” Thomson said. “And we don’t have that in the state of New Hampshire.”
Many in attendance quipped about the practice of trying to quantify a constantly changing variable over which property owners have no control.
Everything from bad weather to seasonal changes in foliage was offered as evidence that a “view tax,” as Thomson calls it, is unfair.
Thomson said he was worried that the view assessment could do serious harm to New Hampshire’s economy.
“If we don’t correct this issue and deal with it, we will see the rural character of the state of New Hampshire lost,” he said. “And we will see the downward spiral of our number one industry: tourism.”
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N.H. Representatives Disagree with “Do-Nothing” Criticism
Accomplishments
New Hampshire Union Leader
Kendra Gilbert
Boston University Washington News Service
10-5-06
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 – Despite being a part of what critics have called a do-nothing Congress, New Hampshire Reps. Charlie Bass and Jeb Bradley said Thursday they’ve done plenty and disagree with the criticism.
“We have extended the tax cuts that are keeping our economy strong,” Bradley said in an interview, “the unemployment rate has gone from 6.3 to 4.7 percent, 5.7 million new jobs have been created as a result of those tax cuts and we’re setting record revenue increases which have substantially reduced our nation’s budget deficit.
“So that’s, I think, an accomplishment of this Congress.”
Bass and Bradley also cited specific legislative steps each has taken.
As a member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Bradley was involved in several issues concerning veterans this year.
He succeeded in getting an amendment attached to a fiscal 2007 federal appropriations bill that added $795 million to the health care budget for veterans. Over this and the next four fiscal years, veterans will receive $3.975 billion as a result.
“He has proven to be a friend to both veterans and service members,” Joe Davis, a spokesman in the Washington office of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said.
Bradley became involved in maintaining the 24-hour policy in emergency rooms of veterans hospitals after the Department of Veterans Affairs proposed closing them between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. In September, Bradley announced that the emergency rooms, including one at the Manchester VA Medical Center, would continue to operate 24 hours a day.
Subsequently, he introduced legislation in the House that would give Congress greater oversight on any proposal intending to cut back emergency room hours in the hospitals. The legislation has not cleared the Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
“Veterans’ issues have been a priority for me and they will certainly continue to be a priority for me,” Bradley said.
Bass said in a statement that he also had “helped increase funding for our veterans.”
Obtaining money this year for New Hampshire residents from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program was another accomplishment Bass and Bradley pointed to. Both Bass and Bradley urged the President to release funds for low-income New Hampshire residents from the program’s surplus. In September, $3 million was released. “These surplus funds will give the state the ability to spread the benefits of [the program] to a greater number of residents and bring relief to those who need it most,” Bradley said in a September statement.
The program is intended to help low-income people cover some of the costs of home heating and cooling.
Most recently, Bass and Bradley each pushed separate bills in the House that would designate two tracts of land totaling 34,500 acres in the White Mountain National Forest as wilderness, thus protecting the land from development.
The bills introduced by Bass and Bradley were blocked from passage by opposition rallied by Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., just before the House adjourned, but both said they hope that Congress will pass the bills when it reconvenes in a post-election lame-duck session.
“I’m very optimistic that as soon as we get back after the election, the Wilderness Bill is going to pass,” Bradley said, saying that he and Bass have come to an agreement with Sanders on a “recalibrated” version of the legislation.
On the national scale, both N.H. lawmakers were active in protecting the Arctic refuge in Alaska and voted against legislation that would have opened the refuge to oil drilling.
“We applaud both of them,” Tiernan Sittenfeld, legislative director of the League of Conservation Voters, said of Bass and Bradley. “They’ve both been real leaders in protecting the Arctic refuge.”
Lydia Weiss, a lobbyist for Defenders of Wildlife, said Bass played a critical role in saving the Arctic wildlife.
Overall, Defenders of Wildlife gave Bass a score of 55 percent and Bradley 60 percent for their efforts to protect the environment.
The League of Conservation Voters scored the two even lower, rating Bradley at 44 percent and Bass at 33 percent.
National security and taxes were also key issues for both Bass and Bradley.
“I have said that my priorities are keeping America safe and winning the war on terror and supporting our troops and supporting our veterans,” Bradley said. “I’ve done all that and I will continue to do that.”
Bass said in his statement that he “worked hard to keep taxes low for New Hampshire families and small businesses.”
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N.H. Representatives Condemn Foley, Split on Leadership
Foley Comment
New Hampshire Union Leader
Kendra Gilbert
Boston University Washington News Service
10-3-06
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 –New Hampshire’s two Republican Representatives, Charlie Bass and Jeb Bradley, expressed their disgust Tuesday with the conduct of former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla.
“The decisions and actions of Mark Foley that have been brought to light over the past couple days are disgusting and inexcusable,” Bass said in a statement.
Bradley, in his own statement, also said he was “disgusted” by Foley’s behavior, calling his electronic communications with former congressional pages “inappropriate and lewd.”
Foley resigned Friday after revelations that he exchanged online messages, some of them sexually explicit, with former congressional pages, at least one of whom was a 16-year-old male.
Pages are high school students who work in the House and Senate for one semester. The highly competitive program brings young men and women to Washington to work in the Capitol, calling members to votes, running errands and acting as couriers. While here they live in a dorm and attend a school for pages.
Despite criticism by both Democrats and Republicans of the House Republican leadership, including Speaker Dennis Hastert, Bass said he was standing behind the leaders.
“I have to take the Speaker’s word [that he had no knowledge of the conversations],” Bass said in an interview. “Why would they cover it up?” he asked.
Bradley neither supported nor condemned the Speaker, saying only that “if the FBI or the House Ethics Committee determines that there was misconduct by any member of Congress or affiliated staff, they should resign immediately.”
A Washington Times editorial on Tuesday called for Hastert to resign.
“House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once,” the editorial said. “Either he was grossly negligent for not taking the red flags fully into account and ordering a swift investigation, for not even remembering the order of events leading up to last week's revelations -- or he deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away.”
Bass and Bradley said they fully supported the House’s unanimous decision Friday to investigate Foley’s actions and the House’s knowledge of his actions.
“Getting to the bottom of this quickly, I think, is a great idea,” Bass said.
As for how the scandal will affect the GOP’s chances of retaining control of the House after the November elections, Bass said: “Anything could happen at this point. Clearly, Mark Foley’s seat is in jeopardy.”
Getting the issue resolved quickly, he added, is in the best interest of his party’s retention of Congress.
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House Votes Against New Hampshire Wilderness Act
Wilderness
Kendra Gilbert
New Hampshire Union Leader
Boston University Washington News Service
9-26-06
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 – Thousands of acres in the White Mountain National Forest remain unprotected after the House of Representatives killed a pair of wilderness protection bills Tuesday.
“We are extremely disappointed,” said Rep. Jeb Bradley, R-N.H., a sponsor of one of the pieces of legislation.
The bills, introduced by Bradley and Rep. Charlie Bass, R-N.H., would have designated almost 34,500 acres of land in New Hampshire as federally protected wilderness areas, putting them off limits for a variety of activities that include mining, logging, road and other construction. But while the bills were widely supported, they fell apparent victim to election-year sniping.
Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who is running for Senate, rallied opposition to the New Hampshire Wilderness Act, which includes the two bills, stating in a letter circulated among his colleagues before the votes that, “these bills will do nothing to protect the environment or increase wilderness areas in New Hampshire.”
Bradley disputed the assertion, saying: “Congressman Sanders is entitled to his opinion. He’s not entitled to the facts though.”
Bradley blamed Sanders’ opposition to the New Hampshire bills on disagreement over Vermont’s wilderness protection legislation.
Sanders wanted similar language included for Vermont in the bill, but it was left out because of opposition within his own state. In recent years, Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, a Republican, the state’s House of Representatives and eight cities all opposed designating more state land as wilderness.
“We should not be held hostage because a similar effort in Vermont to designate wilderness did not have the consensus that the New Hampshire legislation had,” Bradley said.
Bradley praised the timber industry and environmental groups in New Hampshire for coming together in support of protecting New Hampshire wilderness.
Last Tuesday, the Senate unanimously passed legislation similar to the Bradley and Bass bills. But the Senate bill, authored by Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., and co-sponsored by Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., included protections for both New Hampshire and Vermont wilderness.
With time running out before Congress adjourns, the two House bills were brought to the House floor Tuesday under a procedure that moves legislation quickly through the House, but does not allow any amendments and requires a two-thirds majority.
While House members voted 220-167 in favor of voting on Bradley’s bill, which would increase federally protected land in the Sandwich Range by 10,800 acres, the tally was short of the 260 required.
Likewise, Bass’ bill to designate 23,700 acres of land in the Wild River Valley as wilderness was killed despite garnering 223 votes.
Bradley said he was “shocked” by the votes.
“Just sitting back and watching the flames engulf my bill, and Charlie’s bill, and Judd’s bill, and John’s bill, all four of us in New Hampshire worked together and we’re sitting here watching the flames engulf this bill,” Bradley said.
Bradley accused Democrats of partisan politics, as 163 of the votes against action on his were from Democrats, while 167 of the votes against Bass’ bill were from that side of the aisle.
“I talked to a number of Democrats – because I’m asking them to help us out – and they said that they had already been approached by Congressman Sanders and that they couldn’t help us out,” Bradley said.
Sanders’ Communications Director Erin Campbell blamed Republicans for not including Vermont in the House bill.
“Unfortunately, because of partisan political motivations, the Vermont wilderness legislation was stripped from the bill by the House Republican leadership,” Campbell said.
With Congress expected to adjourn next week and only return briefly after the elections, the bills’ chances seem dim.
“We’re going to find a way to get it back on the tracks,” Bradley said. “I haven’t lost hope, but it’s a very significant disappointment.”
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Ms. Morse Goes to Washington
Survivors
New Hampshire Union Leader
Kendra Gilbert
Boston University Washington News Service
9-20-06
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 – Passersby walking through the Wall of Hope Wednesday at the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network’s Celebration on the Hill stopped to look at the New Hampshire banner. It told the story of Michelle Morse, the 22-year-old Plymouth State University student who died last November from colon cancer and for whom “Michelle’s Law” is named.
Just up the road, her mother, AnnMarie Morse, was petitioning New Hampshire congressmen to support similar legislation nationwide.
“Michelle’s Law,” signed by Gov. John Lynch on June 22, allows full-time students who are insured under their parents’ medical plan to take up to 12 months of medical leave without losing their health coverage.
While thousands of cancer survivors and advocates from all 50 states gathered on the National Mall to bring cancer awareness to the doorstep of Congress, AnnMarie Morse was on a personal quest to meet each of the New Hampshire’s four members of Congress.
The meetings went well, she said.
“We found that Bass and Bradley – actually they all – want to find a way to solve this problem. Exactly what that’s going to be, they’re not sure yet,” she said. “They agree that there needs to be something done to protect these kids.”
While Morse met with members of the delegation individually, she was not alone in her mission. More than 10,000 people were expected to attend the event outside, according to the American Cancer Society. Of the nearly 4,000 ambassadors chosen to represent the states, Lee Kitchen was one of 17 selected from New Hampshire.
Kitchen was diagnosed with testicular cancer three years ago. With his cancer in remission since April, Lee is in Washington to bring public awareness to the disease that not only affected him but also took his grandmother’s life.
“We are down here to represent people up there [in New Hampshire]. and we want to find a cure for this thing,” he said.
In addition to the meetings she had set up with the members of the congressional delegation, Morse also participated in the events on the Mall, down at the New Hampshire booth talking with volunteers and advocates.
“She’s here to be part of the celebration,” Peter Ames, a volunteer in the booth, said.
Ames, the director of government relations and advocacy for the American Cancer Society in New Hampshire, said he hoped to get all four of the state’s delegation to sign the society’s Congressional Cancer Promise, a document that asks lawmakers to pledge their support for cancer research legislation.
"We were pleased to meet with AnnMarie Morse today in Washington, D.C., and
speak more in depth with her about this issue,” Reps. Charlie Bass and Jeb Bradley said in a statement. “We also commend the Morse family for their courage and resolve throughout this ordeal and for their efforts to highlight this issue, and we support and applaud the New Hampshire Legislature for reacting so quickly earlier this year.”
The two lawmakers said they would craft narrowly targeted legislation
patterned on Michelle's Law to address similar loopholes in federal insurance laws. “We look forward to continuing to work with AnnMarie on this issue,” they said.
At the meetings and other events, Morse wore an angel pin to remind her, she said, of Michelle.
Her daughter, she recalled, “didn’t want to be known as ‘Michele Morse’ the cancer patient.” She wanted to travel with her mother around the country. Knowing that Michelle probably wouldn’t live to see that happen, Morse said she told her, ‘Babe, you’ll be an angel with me.’”
According to a report by the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, 5,377 new cancer cases and 2,407 cancer-related deaths were reported in the state in 1999, the latest year for which statistics were available.
Lisa Troy, one of the New Hampshire ambassadors, and her boyfriend Scott Starkowsky came down from Pittsfield to attend the event here. They were two of the many people who paused in front of the giant picture of Michelle Morse and read about her battle with cancer.
Starkowsky’s mother, Marti Roslin, died of breast cancer in 2004, 12 years after being diagnosed. He was too choked up to speak, and so Troy spoke for him.
“She was always trying something new,” Troy said of Roslin. “She was right at the beginning of everything,” trying each new cancer drug that came out.
“We need to make cancer more talkable,” Troy said, “and get more funding for cancer research.”
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Sen. Gregg Applauds Progress in Border Security
Security
New Hampshire Union Leader
Kendra Gilbert
Boston University Washington News Service
9-19-06
WASHINGTON – Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. had strong words for Senate Democrats Tuesday in a floor speech about the progress Congress has made in protecting U.S. borders.
Gregg criticized Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., for his comments earlier in the morning in which Durbin called the 109th a “do-nothing Congress,” according to Gregg.
“It is truly disingenuous when the assistant leader for the Democratic side comes to the floor and says we have done nothing as a Congress, when almost every major piece of legislation that has been brought to the floor of this Senate has been filibustered by the other side of the aisle,” Gregg said.
With the days ticking away before Congress adjourns in October, Gregg commended the passage of key legislation that, he said, has made U.S. borders more secure.
“We are moving in the right direction relative to the border,” Gregg said on the floor.
He praised the addition of 18,000 customs officers and the building of hundreds of miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We’ve been dramatically increasing the resources in this area,” Gregg said of the additional fortifications along the southwestern U.S. border over the past two years.
Gregg said he hopes the Homeland Security Appropriations Bill – which is likely to go to conference with the House within the next week or two, according to Gregg’s press secretary – will include such security reinforcements as 4,000 new border agents and nearly 10,000 new detention beds.
The new beds, Gregg said, will fix the current policy on detention of illegal immigrants caught along the border, which often ends with their release.
“It was really inappropriate, the policy which was being followed, which was that when you catch somebody coming across the border, you simply either took them back across the border if they were Mexican, or you released them and told them not to come back [until they] appear for a court date,” Gregg said.
Gregg said other advancements in border security made since 2005, the year Gregg took over as chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, include $7.5 billion designated for the Coast Guard to upgrade its aircraft and helicopters.
Gregg also lauded the increased focus on nuclear detection and the expansion of the Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence capabilities – including a $500-million analysis center.
Pleased as he may be with the progress made, Gregg said he was realistic about the time it will take to fully implement these policies.
“It takes time,” he said in a phone interview. “All these things take time to ramp up, and we are in the process of doing that.”
When asked whether the appropriations bill would be finished before the October break, Gregg responded simply, “yes.”
Despite what he said were efforts by the Democrats to “make it virtually impossible to pass legislation in the Senate in order that the Senate appear to be an ineffective body,” Gregg said his outlook is positive.
“We are headed towards a time in the not-so-distant future when we can say the borders are reasonably secure,” he said.
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Women Entrepreneurs Backed by Sununu
Businesswomen
New Hampshire Union Leader
Kendra Gilbert
Boston University Washington News Service
9-19-06
WASHINGTON—Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., has thrown his support behind the Women’s Small Business Ownership Programs Act of 2006.
The bipartisan legislation, introduced by Senators Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and John Kerry, D-Mass., is intended to provide assistance to Women’s Business Centers around the country, among them a location in Portsmouth, N. H.
“As more and more women entrepreneurs explore the opportunity to start, expand or improve small businesses, critical information and key contacts can make the difference between success and failure,” Sununu wrote in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
In 2004, Sununu pushed both the House and the Senate to continue to provide funds for centers across the country. That year, the Portsmouth center received $75,150 from the Small Business Administration.
Small businesses create a large number of employment opportunities, Sununu said in a 2004 statement. They are, he said, “the cornerstone of the American economy.”
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High School Humanitarian Project Branches Out
Humanitarian
New Hampshire Union Leader
Kendra Gilbert
Boston University Washington News Service
9-15-06
WASHINGTON – The volunteers of “There’s No Place Like Home” believe what their name says. So much so, that this week four members of the group traveled 500 miles to Washington to work on taking the Rochester, N.H.-based organization ever farther – nationwide.
It was just three months earlier that the group’s first project, an 1,100 square-foot house, was loaded onto a truck and driven down to Cut Off, La., where a family of five, left homeless by Hurricane Katrina, waited to once again go home.
In Washington for two days, the four-person group, led by Paula Young, met with Rep. Jeb Bradley, R-N.H., and other members of Congress to discuss the growth of their organization, as well as seek out possible sponsors. They also met with other groups, including Habitat for Humanity, with whom they hope to form a partnership.
Bradley, who called the group a “tremendous organization,” has been a strong supporter from the beginning, even commending their commitment on the floor of the House.
“Congressman Bradley really brought it up a step,” Jan Fowler, one of the committee members who traveled to Washington, said. “When we got a little down or worried, he was there.”
This past June, Bradley joined team members in New Hampshire to watch as the first house built by “There’s No Place Like Home” was hauled off to Louisiana by the New Hampshire National Guard.
“These are really good New Hampshire people that saw a problem and found a solution,” Bradley said.
After Katrina, Pastor Bernie Quinn urged his congregation at the Grace Community Church in Rochester to come up with ways to help those in need along the Gulf Coast, Young said. Along with other church members, Young decided to collaborate with students in the Building Trades Program at Somersworth High School to build a house for a family left homeless by the storm. And so began “There’s No Place Like Home.”
With the help of donations from local companies and donors, the group was able to raise the roughly $40,000 needed to build a three-bedroom, two-bathroom, ranch style home for a family in Louisiana, who lacked the resources to rebuild on their own.
The group hopes the replicate its success nationwide, Young said.
“We wanted to help one family, and now we have figured out that we can master this and it can go from coast to coast,” Young said. “There’s no reason it can’t.”
They have already started work on a four-bedroom house for a second family whose home was damaged by Katrina and then completely destroyed soon after by Hurricane Rita.
But it isn’t just the recipients of the homes being built by “There’s No Place Like Home” that are benefiting.
“What better way to teach our kids, raise leaders for tomorrow, and tackle a problem that nobody else seems to be able to tackle?” Young said.
Of the more than 1,800 volunteers who donated time, money, and supplies to build the first house, 60 of them were high school students. Young said that number is growing.
And with nearly 20,000 trade schools nationwide, she said the potential for “There’s No Place Like Home” to grow is great.
“They can really make a difference,” Young said, “one nail at a time.”
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British Counterterrorism Tactics Looked at as a Model
Terrorism
New Hampshire Union Leader
Kendra Gilbert
Boston University Washington News Service
9-14-06
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., called Thursday for a counter-terrorism system in this country that places greater focuses on prevention of attacks rather than prosecution after the fact.
Gregg and witnesses appearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Homeland Security Subcommittee, which he chairs, discussed the British counterterrorism system, with a separate domestic intelligence agency at its heart, as a potential model.
“Obtaining the intelligence to stop an attack before it occurs” is our primary goal, Gregg told a panel of witnesses. “This is a war of intelligence,” he said of the struggle against global terrorism.
While the FBI is a crime-fighting agency that traditionally focuses on building cases for criminal prosecution, Britain’s MI5 is a domestic security agency that gathers intelligence with a view toward proactively combating terrorism and other threats to British security. As a result, MI5 has far more latitude on domestic intelligence gathering and ability to detain suspects than does the FBI.
Gregg and the witnesses argued that the FBI’s purview is too broad, often dealing with criminal justice cases unrelated to terrorism, and a new, more focused intelligence agency is needed.
“The FBI is torn,” U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Richard Posner told the committee.
Witnesses disagreed, however, on how to best achieve a more-focused domestic intelligence agency. John Yoo, a professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley and a former adviser to the Bush administration on counterterrorism and the law, proposed reorganizing the FBI to focus solely on intelligence-gathering and counterterrorism aims. Posner, however, proposed the creation of an entirely new agency, similar to MI5.
Gregg said that inside the FBI, the “culture is resistant” to changing over to the kind of mission required for domestic counterterrorism.
Posner, in his written statement to the committee, argued for the need for an MI5-type group, “which should encounter no obstacle based on our Constitution, for a domestic intelligence agency separate from the FBI.”
Testimony and discussion focused specifically on the U.S. policy of holding terrorism suspects without charges for no more than 48 hours. The witnesses agreed that U.S. officials should consider following the British model, which has a 28-day limit.
Some of the witnesses also advocated that the U.S. government emulate Britain’s more lenient restrictions on data mining and surveillance, as well as its separation between its intelligence agency and its local law enforcement agencies.
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