Posted on 12/03/2004 9:24:09 AM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) told lawmakers Friday he is working as hard as possible to strike a deal on legislation to implement the Sept. 11 commission's recommendations on how to make the country safer from terrorist attack.
Bush told House and Senate members at the White House that "he's working on it as hard as he can," said Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., who briefed reporters after the session. "We've talked to other people who are working on it, progress is being made, and we hope that it can be finished up (next) week."
The president's task may have been made easier on Thursday when the nation's top military officer said lawmakers had adequately addressed a provision in the bill that he had objected to publicly.
Two influential House lawmakers — Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. — were still opposing legislation that would create a national intelligence director and a national counterterrorism center to face terrorist threats.
Negotiators are working down to the wire in hopes of getting an agreement so the House can vote Monday. If the House goes ahead, the Senate could act Tuesday and send the legislation to the White House for Bush's signature.
The president on Thursday called House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and told them he wants an intelligence bill completed. Bush was expected to send a letter Friday to Congress laying out his wishes. As of mid-day, White House officials said the letter had not been delivered.
Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., the lead Senate negotiators, said they were not prepared to reopen negotiations, and said they expect the president's letter would endorse their compromise.
Meanwhile, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said his one objection to the compromise bill was resolved. He asked last month that the bill keep money for combat support agencies flowing through the Pentagon (news - web sites) instead of going through the proposed national intelligence director.
"The issue that I specifically addressed in a letter to Chairman Hunter has been accommodated, I'm told, in the bill," Myers said, although he refused to endorse the compromise.
The legislation has not received noticeable support from the Pentagon, which now controls much of the money that would go to the national intelligence director. Crucial to winning Hunter's support is ensuring that the Defense Department would retain direct control over the agencies that operate the nation's spy satellites and analyze the information they pick up.
Under the legislation, the intelligence director would oversee the CIA (news - web sites) as well as Pentagon-controlled agencies such as the National Reconnaissance Office, which operates spy satellites, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which analyzes satellite pictures.
Hunter says battlefield commanders need direct access to those satellites and should not have to waste time by asking the intelligence director's permission to use the equipment.
"We need to have here a strong chain of command between the combat support agencies — those are the satellite agencies and those who do the signal intelligence and the pictures — and the warfighters on the ground in the Department of Defense (news - web sites)," he said in an interview with The Associated Press last week.
"In my judgment this bill ... would play into rendering that area confused to the detriment of our Americans in combat, so I will not support it," he said.
But Collins said Thursday there was nothing in the bill that would hinder military operations.
"The bill leaves tactical and joint military intelligence under the exclusive control of the Pentagon. The language could not be clearer on that point," Collins said.
She said the bill would put into law "the existing practices where the CIA director sorts through the priority uses of national intelligence assets, such as spy satellites that are relied upon not only by our military, but by the secretary of state and a host of other consumers."
Sensenbrenner says he would have signed onto the compromise last week if the Senate had agreed to close what he called loopholes in asylum laws that he said some terrorists have used to try to get into the country.
He pointed to Mir Aimal Kansi, a Pakistani who was convicted and executed for killing two people outside the CIA's headquarters in 1993.
Kansi entered the country and asked for political asylum, which won him a routine one-year work permit. He used that to get a Virginia driver's license, which in turn allowed him to purchase the AK-47 police contend he used in the killings.
___
On the Net:
Information on the bills, S. 2845 and H.R. 10, can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov
Sen. Susan Collins (news, bio, voting record), R-Maine, chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee (news - web sites), and the committee's ranking Democratic member, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (news, bio, voting record), D-Conn., discuss pending intelligence reform legislation during a news conference on Capitol Hill Thursday, Dec. 2, 2004. Both senators said they expect Congress to approve a compromise bill next week. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)
"Sensenbrenner says he would have signed onto the compromise last week if the Senate had agreed to close what he called loopholes in asylum laws that he said some terrorists have used to try to get into the country.
He pointed to Mir Aimal Kansi, a Pakistani who was convicted and executed for killing two people outside the CIA's headquarters in 1993.
Kansi entered the country and asked for political asylum, which won him a routine one-year work permit. He used that to get a Virginia driver's license, which in turn allowed him to purchase the AK-47 police contend he used in the killings"
The fact that this loophole is still open is digusting. Bush is pushing ahead full force in his effort to grant amnesty to the illegals here and will attempt to derail anything that would stop him. If he succeeds he will undermine the credibility of the GOP with respect to issues of national security.
Rep. Hunter and Sensenbrenner stick with your bill do not let the WH and Sen. push you into a do nothing bill.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.