Final 9/11 Bill Unlikely Before Election
WASHINGTON - [size=-1]The Senate prepared Wednesday to fulfill an election year promise by approving a massive reorganization of the U.S. intelligence network in line with some recommendations the Sept. 11 commission suggested after finding widespread failures.[/size]
But differences between the Senate bill and a House version, which includes additional anti-terrorism and illegal immigration powers, could preclude getting the recommended changes to President Bush (news - web sites) before the election.
Senators planned to pass a bill pushed by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn. The legislation would create a national counterterrorism center and also a position of national intelligence director who would coordinate most of the nation's nonmilitary intelligence agencies.
The 9/11 commission contended that the 15 military and civilian intelligence agencies' failure to cooperate precluded an effective defense that might have prevented the 2001 terror attacks on New York City and Washington. The panel recommended creating a position of national intelligence director to control and coordinate all the agencies.
Senators expect their bill, endorsed by the 9/11 commission and the White House, to pass by a comfortable margin. The legislation has easily survived earlier test votes, including defeats of amendments the sponsors said would weaken the bill.
But several of the Senate's senior members — many of whom would lose some power over the intelligence community — oppose the bill, and warned that the legislative process was moving too fast.
Sen. Robert Byrd (news, bio, voting record) of West Virginia, the Democrats' senior senator, reminded his colleagues that they moved too quickly on the Iraq (news - web sites) war resolution and the creation of the Homeland Security Department.
"Like a whipped dog fearing its master, the Senate obediently complied with the demands of the White House," Byrd said. "Hindsight reveals the mistakes the Senate made two years earlier."
The Homeland Security Department is stymied by "bureaucratic infighting, unresolved turf wars, and insufficient funding," Byrd said, while the White House's arguments of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have "has disintegrated into a mess of lies and hot air."
The Senate bill must be reconciled with House legislation before it can go the White House for Bush's signature, and the two bills currently are very different.
The House also plans this week to approve legislation to create an intelligence director position and a national counterterrorism center. But the GOP also adds provisions on anti-terrorism, identity theft, illegal immigration and border security — measures that Democrats and some Republicans think shouldn't be included.
House GOP leaders already are preparing to fight for their provisions.
"It's real simple. The House bill — every single word of it — will make the American people safer," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.
But opponents of the GOP bill say the provisions were included to force Democrats into a difficult, election-year vote that could have political consequences.
"The 9/11 Commission urged Congress to work in a bipartisan manner to implement all of its recommendations," Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., said. "In contrast, House Republicans have turned this into a political exercise."
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The Senate bill is S. 2845. The House bill is H.R. 10.
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On the Net: http://thomas.loc.gov
WASHINGTON - [size=-1]The Senate prepared Wednesday to fulfill an election year promise by approving a massive reorganization of the U.S. intelligence network in line with some recommendations the Sept. 11 commission suggested after finding widespread failures.[/size]
But differences between the Senate bill and a House version, which includes additional anti-terrorism and illegal immigration powers, could preclude getting the recommended changes to President Bush (news - web sites) before the election.
Senators planned to pass a bill pushed by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn. The legislation would create a national counterterrorism center and also a position of national intelligence director who would coordinate most of the nation's nonmilitary intelligence agencies.
The 9/11 commission contended that the 15 military and civilian intelligence agencies' failure to cooperate precluded an effective defense that might have prevented the 2001 terror attacks on New York City and Washington. The panel recommended creating a position of national intelligence director to control and coordinate all the agencies.
Senators expect their bill, endorsed by the 9/11 commission and the White House, to pass by a comfortable margin. The legislation has easily survived earlier test votes, including defeats of amendments the sponsors said would weaken the bill.
But several of the Senate's senior members — many of whom would lose some power over the intelligence community — oppose the bill, and warned that the legislative process was moving too fast.
Sen. Robert Byrd (news, bio, voting record) of West Virginia, the Democrats' senior senator, reminded his colleagues that they moved too quickly on the Iraq (news - web sites) war resolution and the creation of the Homeland Security Department.
"Like a whipped dog fearing its master, the Senate obediently complied with the demands of the White House," Byrd said. "Hindsight reveals the mistakes the Senate made two years earlier."
The Homeland Security Department is stymied by "bureaucratic infighting, unresolved turf wars, and insufficient funding," Byrd said, while the White House's arguments of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have "has disintegrated into a mess of lies and hot air."
The Senate bill must be reconciled with House legislation before it can go the White House for Bush's signature, and the two bills currently are very different.
The House also plans this week to approve legislation to create an intelligence director position and a national counterterrorism center. But the GOP also adds provisions on anti-terrorism, identity theft, illegal immigration and border security — measures that Democrats and some Republicans think shouldn't be included.
House GOP leaders already are preparing to fight for their provisions.
"It's real simple. The House bill — every single word of it — will make the American people safer," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.
But opponents of the GOP bill say the provisions were included to force Democrats into a difficult, election-year vote that could have political consequences.
"The 9/11 Commission urged Congress to work in a bipartisan manner to implement all of its recommendations," Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., said. "In contrast, House Republicans have turned this into a political exercise."
___
The Senate bill is S. 2845. The House bill is H.R. 10.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="1%" align=left border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD width="99%"></TD><TD width=5> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
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On the Net: http://thomas.loc.gov
