25 September 2004
The House and Senate 9/11 Commission Implementation bills:
http://cryptome.org/911-acts.zip (two Zipped PDF files, 1.3MB)
New York Times, September 25, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/25/politics/25intel.html
By PHILIP SHENON and DOUGLAS JEHL
Published: September 25, 2004
WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 - House Republican leaders introduced a long-awaited bill Friday that would grant more limited powers to a new national intelligence director than those recommended by the Sept. 11 commission or called for in a companion bill in the Senate.
Speaker J. Dennis Hastert said that the bill "doesn't do everything the commission wants.'' But he said the legislation, which would also grant a host of new powers to law enforcement agencies that the Sept. 11 commission had not specifically sought, "reflects the good work of the 9/11 commission and it will make America safer.''
The House legislation was instantly criticized by House Democrats, who said they had been shut out of deliberations and warned that House Republicans, by introducing a bill so different from its bipartisan Senate counterpart, may be trying to scuttle any final agreement on legislation to enact the recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission.
The White House offered its own draft legislation last week for creation of a national intelligence director, and its wording was similar in many ways to that of the House bill. The White House had no immediate comment on the bill Friday.
The establishment of the intelligence director's job was the central recommendation of the Sept. 11 commission in its final report.
A prominent Republican champion of the commission's recommendations, Representative Christopher Shays of Connecticut, said he saw the hand of Congressional allies of the Pentagon in Mr. Hastert's legislation. Mr. Shays said he was startled earlier this week at a classified Congressional briefing when Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld strongly criticized the idea of a powerful national intelligence director.
"He was dismissive,'' Mr. Shays said, noting that Mr. Rumsfeld's comments appeared to put him at odds with the White House, which has endorsed the commission's call for creation of the job. "He just trashed everything about the national intelligence director. He found one objection after another to the idea.''
The Pentagon's chief spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, disputed the lawmaker's characterization, saying that he attended that briefing with the defense secretary and that Mr. Rumsfeld did not criticize proposals for creation of the job of national intelligence director. Mr. Rumsfeld, he said, emphasized only that such a step should "be done right.''
In releasing the House bill, Mr. Hastert said in a statement that the national intelligence director would have "full budget authority'' over the government's methods of gathering and sharing intelligence.
But a close reading of the 335-page bill, which was made public late Friday afternoon, suggests something other than full control. The bill says the intelligence director would "facilitate the management'' of the intelligence funding and could transfer money among intelligence programs only with the "approval of the director of the Office of Management and Budget'' in the White House.
The leaders of the Sept. 11 commission have offered an enthusiastic endorsement of a bill passed this week by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which would create the job of a powerful national intelligence director with more sweeping budget and personnel authority.
"The Senate bill was created in a bipartisan manner and covers the full range of the 9/11 commission recommendations,'' said Representative Jim Turner of Texas, the ranking Democrat on the House Select Committee on Homeland Security. "Unfortunately, the House Republican bill, which was crafted without any bipartisan consultations, falls far short of the mark.''
Representative Jane Harman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said the Senate bill was "much stronger and better'' in providing budget and personnel authority to a national intelligence director.
Although she said she worried that "games are being played'' by the Republicans, Ms. Harman said she was still hopeful that House and Senate leaders could agree on a final bill before Congress adjourned before Election Day, especially if pressure is brought on Republicans by members of the Sept. 11 panel.
The House bill also includes provisions that are not found in the Senate bill and would expand the powers of law enforcement agencies to pursue terrorist suspects in the United States. The provisions, which include new electronic surveillance powers and expand on authority provided to the Justice Department under the USA Patriot Act of 2001, are similar to those found in a draft proposal offered last year by the department.
In separate interviews, the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the chairman of the Sept. 11 committee agreed Friday that Congress needed to pass an intelligence overhaul bill before lawmakers adjourned. All three agreed that the bill needed to establish a powerful national intelligence director.
"I don't like rushing to judgment, and I don't think we are,'' said Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, the Republican who is chairman of the Intelligence Committee.
The panel's ranking Democrat, Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, said, "We now have this momentum and the momentum may be totally undermined by the House.''
The chairman of the Sept. 11 commission, Thomas H. Kean, a Republican former governor of New Jersey, said that he had not received a copy of the House bill but that he was concerned by reports that it would be laden with unrelated law enforcement and intelligence provisions that could derail a final bill.
"Especially if they are controversial,'' Mr. Kean said. "What we are trying to get is bipartisan consensus to make the country safer. If there are too many things outside those recommendations that are controversial, then you've got a problem.''
He said he was offering his endorsement to the bill passed unanimously this week by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee: "I would hope that the Senate bill would be something of a model for the approach in the House.''
As the debate intensified, the C.I.A., which would cede power to the intelligence director's office, had a new director Friday, Porter J. Goss, a former House Republican from Florida. Mr. Goss was sworn in at the White House and later addressed employees at the agency's headquarters in Virginia. The agency declined to release a transcript of his remarks.
Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington for this article.