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21 September 2004

Senate Committee Approves Porter Goss for CIA Director

Congressional Report, September 21: Intelligence Reform

Washington -- The Senate Intelligence Committee approved the nomination of U.S. Representative Porter J. Goss to head the Central Intelligence Agency.

By a vote of 12-4, the intelligence committee September 21 sent President Bush's choice to head the agency to the full Senate. Committee Chairman Pat Roberts said he expects quick Senate approval on September 22.

Roberts described Goss as independent, nonpartisan and aggressive, and well qualified to head the CIA.

Bush nominated Goss, the former Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, August 10. Gross would succeed George Tenet, who resigned July 11 after criticism of the performance of the intelligence community in the fight against terrorism.

Goss' nomination comes as Congress is considering numerous bills that would reorganize or revamp the 15-member U.S. intelligence community, create a new post of national intelligence director with sweeping authority and establish a National Counterterrorism Center.

The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee began two days of final debate September 21 on legislation to overhaul the intelligence community. The bill would represent the most sweeping overhaul of American intelligence since creation of the current national security apparatus in 1947.

The bill would create a National Intelligence Authority headed by a national intelligence director with budgetary authority over the National Foreign Intelligence Program, which would include all federal agencies involved in intelligence gathering and analysis except for those providing direct joint military and tactical intelligence.

The proposed national intelligence director would be given authority to develop, present and execute an intelligence budget, and authority to move employees among the agencies, but with permission from the White House Office of Management and Budget.

The bill also would create the National Counterterrorism Center.

The Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives are working on a wide-ranging bill that could be sent to six different House committees for consideration during the week of September 27-October 1. Several other Senate bills are also under consideration, but final action may not come in time before the current Congress recesses until January 2005.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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