Spy chief may get budget control

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Sep 16, 2004 | by Jesse J. Holland Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Congress detailed plans Wednesday to move quickly on reorganization of the nation's intelligence community, with House leaders promising action before the Nov. 2 election and Senate leaders saying they want a new intelligence director to control most of the nation's intelligence budget.

"Without budget authority, we would just be creating another level of bureaucracy," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.

The Sept. 11 commission recommended creation of a national intelligence director to control almost all of the nation's 15 intelligence agencies, saying the agencies did not work together properly to stop the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and Washington.

To make sure the agencies listen, Collins and ranking Democrat Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut want to give the bulk of the nation's estimated $40 billion in intelligence funds to a new director, who would use the money for spy agencies that deal with nonmilitary intelligence.

The Pentagon controls 80 percent of current spending, but "that would now switch to the national intelligence director," said Lieberman, who called it a "fundamental, revolutionary change."

Collins and Lieberman said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R- Tenn., plans to have the Senate vote on their bill the week of Sept. 27. "I think we're on an appropriately fast track," Collins said.

The House is also trying to move on the issue before leaving to campaign for re-election.

"We will vote on a final bill before Congress adjourns in October," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. "We're going to make sure we do the job right and we will do it before Congress adjourns."

The House is not as far along as the Senate, with DeLay saying House leadership wants ideas from committee chairmen by Friday and legislation ready for introduction in a couple of weeks.

But House Republican leaders seem to oppose the commission's idea that Congress should create permanent committees to oversee the intelligence community. The 9/11 commission complained that too many congressional panels had authorization, appropriation and oversight responsibility, calling it "dysfunctional."

DeLay said he would rather separate authorizing and appropriating functions, and House Republican Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., called a permanent oversight committee a bad idea.

Intelligence committee members "become more vulnerable as individuals, but they also become more part of the system," Blunt said. "They should be monitoring, challenging, questioning the system."

The Senate is working on how to change its intelligence oversight. The chamber's assistant leaders -- Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada -- said Wednesday they will develop suggestions for senators to consider. They hope to have something ready when the Senate completes action on the Collins- Lieberman bill.

"If we're going to do some construction on the executive branch, we ought to do some construction on the legislative branch," Reid said.

Collins and Lieberman's bill would let the intelligence director control the budgets of the CIA, the National Security Agency, the FBI's Office of Intelligence, the Homeland Security Department's intelligence directorate, the National Reconnaissance Office -- which operates spy satellites -- and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency -- which analyzes satellite pictures -- and any other agency that has a "national" scope.

The Defense Department would keep control of the military functions of the NRO, the NGO and the Defense Intelligence Agency, which collects intelligence for military planning and operations, and other intelligence agencies used solely by the military.

"What we want to make sure is that what we would call 'national' intelligence assets, i.e. those used by more than one agency or department and the president, are under control, the budget for that is under control of the NID," Collins said.

Senators also adopted President Bush's suggestion of creating a Cabinet-level joint intelligence council of officials like the secretary of state, the secretary of energy, the secretary of defense and the secretary of the treasury to advise the intelligence director.

Creating an intelligence director was one of the 9/11 commission's most important recommendations, Lieberman said.

"The American intelligence community today is like a very good football team with great players but no quarterback," he said. "That's not the way to play winning football, and in matters of national security and intelligence, it's not the way to have a successful and strong defense."