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US House rejects advice of Sept. 11 intelligence panel

The US House of Representatives voted on Thursday night to reject a sweeping bill that would have enacted most of the recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission. The draft was similar to a Senate bill backed by President George W. Bush and the commission's leaders.

The vote, 213-203, appeared to clear the way for passage on Friday of a related bill being offered by House Republican leaders that includes many contentious law-enforcement provisions that were not recommended by the Sept. 11 commission and have been strongly criticized by Democrats and civil liberties groups.

The Republican bill would create the post of national intelligence director, in keeping with the commission's central recommendation, but would provide the intelligence director with significantly less budgetary and personnel authority than the commission recommended and than is offered in the Senate bill.

Commission members and congressional Democrats have warned that by pursuing a bill so different from its popular Senate counterpart, House Republicans may have made it impossible for Congress to agree on a final bill this year, perhaps ending any hope for the intelligence overhaul recommended by the bipartisan commission.

"The Republican leadership insists on pursuing a highly partisan process," said Representative Jane Harman. "The American people want us to defend our country, not our turf."

House Republican leaders acknowledged that their bill did not incorporate major recommendations of the commission.

The defeated bill incorporated many of the central provisions of the bipartisan bill adopted on Wednesday in the Senate, 96-2, including creation of a powerful national intelligence director to direct all of the spy agencies.

"Why would the House want to adopt a bill which falls so short of the reforms identified as urgently necessary and adopted unanimously by the bipartisan commission and by the Senate?" asked House leader Nancy Pelosi.

The House vote was a second disappointment Thursday for members of the Sept. 11 commission. The other came in the Senate, which voted 74-23 to reject the most important of the recommendations made by the panel for overhauling how Congress conducts oversight of intelligence issues. The commission described congressional intelligence oversight as "dysfunctional."
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