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Puck
The Texan
Joined: 05 Jan 2004
Posts: 5596
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 Tue Dec 07, 2004 9:53 pm House approves intelligence bill |
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House approves intelligence bill
Senate scheduled to vote on reform bill Wednesday
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The House of Representatives passed the intelligence reorganization bill Tuesday, voting 336-75 to enact the changes proposed by the independent commission that investigated the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
The Senate -- which passed a largely identical measure before Thanksgiving -- is expected to vote on the bill Wednesday, and President Bush is expected to sign it.
The vote ended a two-week impasse between the Senate and the House. Bush was credited with pressuring his fellow Republicans in the House to break the impasse.
The bill would overhaul the U.S. intelligence community by placing the budgets and most assets of 15 spy agencies under a new post of national intelligence director. (More details)
It stalled November 20 when House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter and House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner persuaded House Speaker Dennis Hastert not to bring it to the House floor for a vote.
Hunter, a Republican from California, and others said they feared the bill would give too much power to the national intelligence director, preventing battlefield commanders from having timely access to necessary satellite intelligence.
Hastert, a Republican from Illinois, held it back, and House-Senate conferees worked to find language that would ease Hunter's concerns.
Many Democrats and Republicans were angered because they said they had the votes to pass the bill -- without the two congressmen and their supporters.
Bush pushed for the bill in his radio address Saturday and in a letter to Congress on Monday, and Vice President Dick Cheney joined in the weekend talks.
Hunter gave his support to the measure when new language in the bill directed the president to issue guidelines for the intelligence director "in a manner that respects and does not abrogate the statutory responsibilities of the heads of the departments."
"Those few words help to satisfy concerns that were raised by Congressman Duncan Hunter and the others who were concerned that in some way the bill would lessen the authority of the secretary of defense over battlefield intelligence," said Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of the bill's co-sponsors in the Senate.
"Personally, I believe strongly nothing in the original bill in any way hindered military operations or readiness, but by making this small change, we were able to provide some additional comfort to Congressman Hunter and get him on board."
Immigration questions set for next year
But 67 Republicans and eight Democrats in the House opposed the bill, which dropped earlier House-backed provisions that would have barred states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and limited appeals for immigrants facing deportation.
Sensenbrenner, the major supporter of those measures, called their elimination from the final bill "a recipe for disaster -- the same kind of disaster that occurred on 9/11."
The Wisconsin Republican often cites the fact that the 19 hijackers on September 11 had more than 60 licenses among them as a reason for the provision regarding driver's licenses.
"I think the compromise is incomplete," Sensenbrenner saidbefore the vote.
"I think this is a no-brainer issue. But I lay blame for the fact that this isn't in the bill specifically on Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who are bound not to have meaningful license reform in this bill," Sensenbrenner said.
Rep. Jane Harman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said the bill does bolster U.S. immigration controls.
It would add 10,000 border guards and 4,000 more border inspectors to the federal payroll over five years, and would add 40,000 beds to detention centers housing illegal immigrants over the same period.
Republican Rep. David Dreier of California, said the licensing provisions would be added to the first "must-pass" bill next year -- likely the Iraq war supplement.
The immigration issues also include political asylum changes and completion of a fence on the Mexico-California border.
Dreier said it was unclear as to when the new House would discuss the Iraq bill.
Several relatives of some of the 3,000 people killed in the 9/11 attacks watched the final debate from the House gallery.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi praised relatives of those killed in 9/11 who lobbied in support of the bill, saying they "turned their grief into action."
"We will never forget their loss, and America thanks them for their courage," the California Democrat said.
Opponents said many other 9/11 families opposed the measure and backed Sensenbrenner's immigration proposals.
Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado noted that the 9/11 commission concluded that "fraud in identification documents is no longer just a problem of theft."
"That is the thing we are ignoring completely in this bill, designed to respond to the 9/11 commission report," Tancredo said.
CNN's Ed Henry and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.
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http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/12/07/intelligence.bill/index.html
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Republican_Man
STV's Premier Conservative
Joined: 26 Mar 2004
Posts: 14823
Location: Classified
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| Tue Dec 07, 2004 11:14 pm |
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Good news, but yes. Immigration reform MUST happen. Bush has FAILED MISERABLY with his INCOMPETENCE when it comes to Illegal Immigration. (Yes, I said "Failed Miserably" and "Incompetence" and "Bush" in the same sentence.")
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"Rights are only as good as the willingness of some to exercise responsibility for those rights- Fmr. Colorado Senate Pres. John Andrews
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