North County Times December 01, 2004
Local congressmen push for tougher intelligence reform bill
By Edwards Sifuentes
A bill that would overhaul the nation's intelligence bureaucracy is stalled in Congress because a handful of Republican representatives, including some from San Diego County, say they want to include stricter immigration provisions and change military intelligence language in the measure.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, whose district includes Poway and Ramona, is one of the congressmen holding up the bill and leading the charge to change it.
Reps. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Escondido, and Darrell Issa, R-Vista, whose districts cover most of North County, said they agree with Hunter. Cunningham said he wants assurances that intelligence matters will remain largely with the Pentagon and Issa said he wants anti-illegal immigration provisions included.
The bill would adopt major recommendations of the bipartisan Sept. 11 commission, which was formed shortly after the terrorist attacks of 2001 to create a plan to strengthen the nation's intelligence and security systems. One of the recommendations included in the bill is the creation of a national intelligence director.
But Senate and House leaders have been at loggerheads over some ingredients in the bill.
At issue is whether a new civilian intelligence director would control much of the nation's intelligence-gathering system and its funding, which is now largely controlled by the Pentagon.
Hunter, who is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has said the measure would hamper military intelligence on the battlefield.
Specifically, Hunter said the link between troops and combat support agencies that run intelligence-gathering satellites of battlefield movements would be broken because they would be controlled by a director and not the military.
That would mean "life and death to our people on the field," he said on "Fox News Sunday." Hunter could not be reached for comment.
Cunningham said he is also concerned about the control a civilian intelligence director would have on the satellites.
"You take those eyes from the men and women on the ground and you leave them blind," he said.
Illegal immigration debate
Issa said he would have trouble supporting a bill that does not include immigration reform.
"The arguments are about important issues that might not happen if they are not included in this bill," Issa said Tuesday.
The House approved a version of the bill that included tougher immigration provisions and provided a weaker intelligence director. A separate version in the Senate provided for a stronger intelligence director.
Congressional leaders are debating how to merge the two measures.
Another important difference in the Senate version of the bill is that it is missing provisions that would bar states from issuing driver licenses to illegal immigrants and would allow the expedited removal of illegal immigrants.
Issa and Cunningham said addressing those immigration issues in the intelligence bill is key. They point out that the 19 hijackers that carried out the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, carried with them more than 60 driver's licenses.
Some critics said President Bush has failed to lead the Congress to pass the intelligence bill.
"The president didn't want the 9-11 commission at all," said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman with the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which criticized the Senate for removing the immigration provisions. "Access to cheap labor has been one of the main goals of this administration."
Speaking at an event in Canada, President Bush called on Congress to send him the bill. Though the president is said to favor a compromise bill that lacks some of the illegal immigration provisions, he has not publicly expressed his preference.
That has led some to speculate that he would rather let the measure die.
"The politics are that the president never had any use for a national director of intelligence," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a nonpartisan defense research organization. "He took the issue so that Mr. Kerry wouldn't, and now he's allowing Congress and the opposition to discombobulate it."
Some Republicans, including chairman of the Sept. 11 commission Thomas H. Kean, say they want the intelligence reform bill passed and that illegal immigration provisions can be addressed separately next year.
"Our request to our nation's leaders today is, give us a vote," said Kean, the former Republican governor of New Jersey. "Pass this bill. The choice is between this bill and the status quo. The basic structure of the intelligence community hasn't changed since 9/11. The status quo failed us."
Issa countered that if the immigration and intelligence measures are not included in the bill, they might not be addressed at all.
"If we don't deal with interior (immigration) enforcement and on our borders in this bill, then it is unlikely that we'll deal with it in any other way," he said.
House members will reconvene Monday to fix an appropriations bill in a session expected to take a few hours at most.
But congressional leaders are working to find a compromise on the intelligence reform measure, known as the 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act, and senators may return for a vote if a deal is reached.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
© Copyright 2004, North County Times - Lee Enterprises
