Security - What's New - Archive

WomenMatter will continuously post updates on all this and other issues as we monitor the continuing philosophical and practical debates nationwide. Please check back often for updates. Past updates are available for reference on the Security Archives page.

Overhauling Intelligence: Congress Battles over Security

The White House, the 9/11 Commission, and the families of 9/11 victims are all growing impatient with Congress’ efforts to pass a bill that would overhaul U.S. intelligence.

Although the Senate and House have passed bills separately, they are having trouble reconciling the differences between their two versions. Lawmakers must accomplish a compromise before President Bush can sign the bill into law.

The issues at stake are power, money, national security, and civil liberties, just to name a few. The power debate is, as always, who gains and loses if the new Director gets to make decisions and use tax dollars that now belong to the military in the Pentagon. The Senate has a greater percentage of Democrats and a few moderate Republicans that together make civilian control gain over military control.

House and Senate discrepancies

The Senate version of the bill creates a powerful new National Intelligence Director (NID) who has control over the budgets and personnel of 15 intelligence agencies. The Senate version follows the recommendation of the committee which the Bush administration was slow to support. House Democrats agree with the Senate bill, but House Republicans want the NID to share control with the White House and Pentagon.

The 9/11 Commission fears that the House Republicans’ plan would create ambiguous relationships among senior officials and leave the powers of the NID undefined.

The 9/11 Commission wants the NID to have full authority over non-military personnel in the intelligence community, including the power to transfer personnel among intelligence agencies and to hire and fire agency heads. The commission argues that the heads of intelligence agencies must feel accountable to the NID in order for real change to occur.

Through its extensive investigation, the 9/11 Commission found that the intelligence breakdown that occurred prior to September 11th was due, in part, to the poor organizational structure of the intelligence community. For more on the 9/11 Commission’s findings, click here.

House GOP leaders are concerned that the Pentagon will lose too much power with the Senate bill and are fighting for military officials to control some military intelligence. The Senate bill already allows military control over any intelligence directly related to on-the-ground tactical military action.

House additions

The House version contains several controversial provisions that could sink the legislation if House leaders insist on including them in the final bill. House Republicans want to use the bill to expand the government’s ability to conduct electronic surveillance, a change that the White House supports. But civil liberties experts say that the House bill would expand the Patriot Act without sufficient debate.

The House version would also expand the death penalty to terrorism cases and make it easier to deport immigrants suspected of terrorist activities. Although there is little support for these measures, House GOP leaders don’t plan on abandoning them easily; they say that these provisions are essential to the bill.

A matter of timing

The families of the 9/11 victims are frustrated with lawmakers’ unwillingness to compromise and are urging Senators and House Members to apply the 9/11 Commission recommendations quickly.

The White House is equally eager to see legislators come to an agreement before the November 2nd election so that President Bush can claim the intelligence overhaul as an accomplishment.

Lawmakers, family members, and commission members want a compromise to be reached quickly, or else the bill could be stalled until after the election.

Lame duck

When Congress reconvenes after the November elections, some lawmakers will be retiring or will not have been reelected. These Members are informally called "lame ducks," after an English term referring to bankrupt businessmen.

Lame ducks do not usually have the desire to craft difficult legislation and work long hours right up until Christmas Day. Since it’s hard to get things accomplished during a lame duck session, lawmakers and family members of the 9/11 victims want the bill to be resolved before the general election.

The last few days before the election could be vital to the Intelligence Overhaul Bill. Contact your representatives and let them know what you think about intelligence reforms.

What do you think?

WomenMatter links women together so that we can talk about the issues in a safe environment. To log onto our online forums, click here. To get information about how to start your own WomenMatter club, click here. For more information on Security, click here.

WomenMatter recognizes that most of us are super busy, so sign up for an e alert, and we’ll keep you posted on with the Life Issues that matter most to you.

Women are important to this and every election, so women can help decide what candidates focus on and talk about. Make sure the candidates know what’s important to you.

WomenMatter is dedicated to empowering women to participate in the political process. To do this we have invested in the most in depth NONPARTISAN information, because we trust each woman to make up her own mind.

• We track nine issues every week and update this website several times a week.
• We launch after school GirlsMatter Clubs in middle and high schools to grow the next generation of politically aware women with a full curriculum and startup kit on girlsmatter.com.
• We do continuous research to make sure that we are meeting the needs of women across the country of all ages, races, incomes, preferences, and religions.
• We provide partnerships with nonpartisan organizations that provide services to women and advocate for them.

We offer all our services free of charge without memberships or subscriptions. To help us maintain this work - not just in election years but as a continuing part of women’s lives - please make a tax deductible donation, click here.

Update Posted on: 10/27/2004