Intelligence reform is slow going
WASHINGTON – Negotiators in the House of Representatives and the Senate remained at loggerheads Friday over legislation to revamp the intelligence community.
The main sticking points are how powerful a new national intelligence director should be and whether controversial immigration and law enforcement provisions in the House version of the bill should survive.
Senate and House conferees had hoped to reach a compromise by Election Day, Nov. 2, but as lawmakers headed home for the weekend Friday and became, in many cases, more occupied with campaigning than hammering out compromises, that seemed unlikely.
“With every passing day, we have to be realistic that is it harder to do it right before the election,” said Senate conferee Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.
Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, acknowledged the deadline’s possible slippage. But he added: “We are not going to be moved by an artificial date (such as) when members can be called back here or when it needs to be completed for the election. The driving force here is we all want a good bill.”
The independent Sept. 11 commission’s recommendations, made in July, are the basis of both bills and the impasse.
The commission recommended a new national intelligence director with control over the nation’s intelligence community, 80 percent of which now resides with the Pentagon.
Hoekstra’s House Republican colleagues are seeking to protect the Pentagon’s control over the intelligence community and its budgets.
Senators favor a strong director who has the authority to hire and fire personnel, direct strategic operations and control budgets for intelligence gathering and analysis.
Expanding the powers of law enforcement authorities is another point of disagreement. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., is insisting counterterrorist agencies be allowed to deport certain immigrants without judicial review.
The White House is not backing that provision, but has endorsed other controversial House measures, such as making it easier to conduct secret surveillance on individuals who are not known to be connected to terrorist organizations.
Sept. 11 commissioners have asked that the House provisions be dropped, as have family members of victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks. Members of the 9/11 Family Steering Committee, in a prepared statement, asked President Bush to “get his House in order and intercede with this maverick contingent of members of his own party who are impeding the process of making America safer.”