Former Sept. 11 Commissioners to Push for Improved Congressional Intelligence Oversight in 2005

Former members of the Sept. 11 commission plan to push Congress when it reconvenes next month to reform its oversight of intelligence and homeland security issues, according to the New York Times (see GSN, Oct. 12).

In a report released this summer, the commission proposed the creation of permanent homeland security committees in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The commission also proposed either the creation of a joint House-Senate intelligence committee or separate intelligence committees in each house of Congress with appropriations authority.

“We’ve still got a ways to go; there are still some things that are very important in our report that have not been implemented,” said former commission Chairman Thomas Kean. “There has to be more power given to those intelligence committees.”

This fall, the Senate approved some modest changes, such as removing term limits for intelligence committee members. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) has indicated that House Republican leaders would not support creating a joint intelligence committee or providing the separate committees with appropriations authority, the Times reported. Hastert has made permanent, though, a special homeland security committee created in the House following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks (Shenon/Lipton, New York Times, Dec. 21).

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