Intel Reform Bill Hits Snag In House

By Jeff Gannon
Talon News
November 22, 2004

The long-awaited legislation that would overhaul the nation's intelligence agencies got bogged down in the House of Representatives Saturday. Supporters of the bill had hoped the final act of the 108th Congress would be to pass the most comprehensive reorganization of the national intelligence apparatus, but opposition from the Republican chairmen of two committees stalled the legislation.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, expressed concern that the bill could interfere with the military chain of command and endanger troops in the field, while Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), head of the House Judiciary Committee, wanted language included to deal with illegal immigration.

Both President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney personally lobbied for the bill. While at an economic summit in Chile, Bush spoke of his disappointment in the legislation's failure to come to a vote.

"Hopefully, we'll get a bill done," Bush said, "When I get home I look forward to getting it done."

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) indicated that the legislation could still move next month.

"For us to do the bill in early December, it will take significant involvement by the president and the vice president," Frist said. "It will take real focus on their part."

The legislation grew out of recommendations made by the September 11 Commission that called for a director of national intelligence and a national counterterrorism center. A sticking point has been the transfer of budgetary authority from the Pentagon to the new NID.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) said he was not dismayed by the setback, pointing out the difficulty of reforming intelligence. He pledged to keep trying to move the bill to passage.

Hastert said, "We will ask the negotiators to keep working. We will ask the President to get personally involved. And we will get a bill that will reform our intelligence agencies while protecting our war-fighters."

He added, "It is easy to make recommendations, but it is a lot harder to make law. And since the Commission made its recommendations, the Congress has worked around the clock to make a good law that will make this country safer."

Not everyone was unhappy that the measure didn't make it to the floor. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) believes that House members sent a strong message to their Senate colleagues by choosing not to approve the intelligence reform bill because it lacked crucial immigration reform measures recommended by the 9/11 Commission.

Tancredo, chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, said, "We sent a message to the Senate today that this Republican Congress is not willing to pass a bill that is just an empty shell."

He added, "The Republican Conference in the House made a collective decision not to approve a hollowed out 9/11 bill just to get a bumper sticker slogan or a good sound bite."

It was Tancredo who successfully executed a parliamentary maneuver to temporarily prevent the House of Representatives from rubber-stamping a stripped down conference report on HR 10, legislation originally designed to implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. He used a little-known GOP conference rule to force House leadership to hold a meeting with all House Republicans to explain why key immigration provisions were stripped from the bill by conferees on the bill over the objection of conservatives.

After the conference, the House Republicans collectively made a decision not to approve a weak bill.

"The American people want security, and they know it can never be achieved until we can secure our borders," concluded Tancredo. "Rushing through a 9/11 bill that doesn't address border security would have been a disservice to the families of 9/11 victims and to the American people - and I'm proud that my colleagues recognized this today.