08 December 2004

U.S. Congress Passes Sweeping Intelligence Overhaul Legislation, December 8, 2004

(Bill would create national intelligence director post)

By Merle D. Kellerhals, Jr.
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The U.S. Congress overwhelmingly approved legislation to restructure the nation's intelligence community by creating a new director of national intelligence with broad, strategic authority and a National Counterterrorism Center intended to lessen terrorist threats.

President Bush says he supports the bill and will sign it into law.

The bill would create the most significant transformation of the U.S. intelligence apparatus since its inception in 1947 at the beginning of the Cold War. It also is the second time in two years a major overhaul has been conducted in the federal government in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States -- in 2002 Congress created the Department of Homeland Security by integrating 22 federal agencies. The Terrorist Threat Integration Center and the Terrorist Screening Center also were created with multi-agency participation in response to the attacks.

The Senate passed the legislation, 89-2, on December 8, after the House of Representatives adopted the bill, 336-75, late on December 7.

The legislation, which had been stalled for a month by concerns of some members of Congress over protecting the U.S. military's control of its intelligence agencies, goes to the president for his signature. Efforts to include stringent immigration provisions, which also hampered passage, were removed and will be considered separately by the next Congress.

"My most solemn duty is protecting the American people, and reforming and strengthening our nation's intelligence capabilities will help ensure the safety of our country," Bush said December 6 in a letter urging the congressional leadership to pass the sweeping legislation. Bush and Vice President Cheney worked with congressional leaders and Senate and House conference committee members to resolve issues holding up passage of the bill.

Bush said that he would establish guidelines and regulations to implement this legislation to protect the U.S. military's command and control of its intelligence assets.

"In particular, as we continue to prosecute the global war on terrorism, the integrity of the military chain of command and the principle of battlefield unity of command must continue to be respected and in no way abrogated," Bush said.

Bush said the legislation and his guidelines will also honor his commitment to provide the director of national intelligence with "full and meaningful budget authority over the National Intelligence Program. This is critical to make certain that the intelligence community is more effectively managed."

Shortly after the House passed the intelligence reform bill, House International Relations Chairman Henry Hyde said that the United States had been ill-prepared for the terrorist attacks on September 11.

"The timely and necessary changes contained in the reform package approved today constitute a vital step in further protecting our homeland against those who seek our destruction. I regret that more consideration was not given to strenghtening our immigration laws, which are sadly a source of weakness in our homeland defense," he said.

However, Hyde said that immigration reform would be a major legislative goal in the 109th Congress that begins in January 2005.

"Just as the National Security Act of 1947 was passed to prevent another Pearl Harbor, the Intelligence Reform Act will help us prevent another 9/11," said Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chair Susan Collins, who helped negotiate the final compromise with the House. "We are rebuilding a structure that was designed for a different enemy at a different time, a structure that was designed for the Cold War and has not proved agile enough to deal with the threats of the 21st century."

The bill is Capitol Hill's effort to respond to recommendations by the 9/11 Commission, formally known as the National Commission on the Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. The bipartisan, 10-member commission, which over the past two years conducted a series of hearings on the September 11th terrorist attacks, issued a 570-page report -- which quickly became a bestseller in bookstores nationwide -- July 22 calling for a number of changes to be made by the president and Congress to enhance the intelligence community's effectiveness and coordinate its oversight, management and funding.

Currently, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency coordinates the work of the 15-member intelligence community, although each agency or bureau actually operates separately from the others, and budget authority for each is independent of that for the others.

DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE

The bill approved by Congress, completed just before it adjourns and closes the 108th Congress, would create a director of national intelligence with broad, strategic authority to determine a unified direction for intelligence gathering and operations for the whole community. The new director also would have the authority to develop and determine the annual intelligence budget, which is estimated at $40 billion.

Currently more than 80 percent of the annual intelligence budget is controlled by the Department of Defense. Under the new bill, funding for defense-related intelligence activities would still pass through Pentagon control, giving the military day-to-day control over the execution of the budget.

The annual intelligence budget remains classified, including the total amount of the budget. The bill would give the director of national intelligence authority to move up to 5 percent of an agency's budget to other intelligence agencies to complete or carry out missions.

NATIONAL COUNTERTERRORISM CENTER

The bill would establish a National Counterterrorism Center, and gives it the authority to plan intelligence missions and counterterrorism operations. However, the center's director would not have authority to tell civilian and military agencies how to execute those missions, an aspect that is designed to avoid conflicting guidance to military commanders from the Pentagon and from the counterterrorism center.

The counterterrorism center would serve as the primary organization for analyzing and integrating all U.S. intelligence pertaining to terrorism and counterterrorism, and to conduct strategic operational planning for the global war on terrorism. The current Terrorist Threat Integration Center would be transferred to the counterterrorism center. The bill would require the new center's director to report to the director of national intelligence on budget and intelligence matters, but to report to the president on the planning and progress of joint counterterrorism operations.

A House-sponsored provision that would have made it harder for refugees to gain asylum in the United States and require faster deportation of illegal aliens without review in the federal courts was cut from the final intelligence bill.

OTHER PROVISIONS

Other provisions in the legislation awaiting the president's signature would:

-- Require the states to follow uniform national standards for what documents to accept in issuing driver's licenses and in determining eligibility to obtain a license.

-- Authorize new programs and pilot projects to enhance airport and aircraft security, including explosive-detection screening for carry-on baggage, training for foreign air marshals, blast-resistant cargo and baggage containers, and more screening of airport workers.

-- Add 2,000 new Border Patrol agents and 800 new Customs agents each year for the next five years, and authorize the use of unmanned aerial vehicles to monitor the border with Canada. It also would add 8,000 more beds in detention facilities to house illegal aliens and terrorist suspects for the next five years.

-- Require visa applicants to undergo an in-person interview before receiving a U.S. visa, and also would require the deportation of immigrants who receive military training from terrorist organizations.

-- Authorize the FBI to conduct surveillance and wiretaps on suspected terrorists who have no ties to any foreign country or entity, a provision that is designed to combat so-called "lone wolf" terrorists acting outside of known terrorist groups or networks.

-- Set minimum sentences for possessing or trafficking in missile systems -- known as shoulder-fired MANPADS -- that are designed to destroy aircraft in flight.

-- Authorize new efforts to reduce money laundering and increase tracing of some cross-border financial transactions to curb terrorist financing.

-- Expand foreign aid to Afghanistan.

-- Create a uniform security-clearance process among agencies that includes a new interagency database and requires interagency cooperation in granting clearances.

-- Enhance public diplomacy efforts by increasing news broadcasts to the Islamic world, increasing scholarships grants to American-sponsored schools in Muslim countries, and requiring more diplomatic dialogue with Saudi Arabia.

-- Call for the president to continue to strongly support the new democracy caucus at the United Nations, the U.N. Human Rights Commission, the Conference on Disarmament, and other broad-based international organizations.

The bill also expresses the sense of Congress that the United States should build multilateral cooperation of the U.S.-led Community of Democracies, and its efforts linking political and economic freedom to the prevention of the spread of terrorism.