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House, Senate conferees remain
deadlocked over reforms
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WASHINGTON – Negotiators in the House of Representatives
and the Senate remained at loggerheads Friday over legislation to
revamp the intelligence community.
The main sticking points are how powerful a new national
intelligence director should be and whether controversial
immigration and law enforcement provisions in the House version of
the bill should survive.
Senate and House conferees had hoped to reach a compromise by
Election Day, Nov. 2, but as lawmakers headed home for the weekend
Friday and became, in many cases, more occupied with campaigning
than hammering out compromises, that seemed unlikely.
“With every passing day, we have to be realistic that is it
harder to do it right before the election,” said Senate
conferee Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.
Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., the chairman of the House Intelligence
Committee, acknowledged the deadline’s possible slippage. But
he added: “We are not going to be moved by an artificial date
(such as) when members can be called back here or when it needs to
be completed for the election. The driving force here is we all
want a good bill.”
The independent Sept. 11 commission’s recommendations, made
in July, are the basis of both bills and of the impasse. The
commission recommended a new national intelligence director with
control over the nation’s intelligence community, 80 percent
of which now resides with the Pentagon.
Hoekstra’s House Republican colleagues are seeking to protect
the Pentagon’s control over the intelligence community and
its budgets. Senators favor a strong director who has the authority
to hire and fire personnel, direct strategic operations and control
budgets for intelligence gathering and analysis.
Sumana Chatterjee
Knight Ridder Newspapers