Intelligence Bill

This article is about Intelligence Bill that is being held up in both the House and Senate. This Bill would create a national intelligence director to coordinate the nations spy agencies like the CIA, FBI, and National Securities Agency. The purpose of the bill is to create a field where these agencise share information with each other, the president, and Congress. This article is relevant to what we have been studying in class because the bill had to come out of the sub-committee to be voted on by the rest of Congress. The Bill was passed last week by the House-Senate conference committee last month, which is why it is able to come to the floor to be voted on. The bill was about to be passed until some of members of the House and Senate voiced concerns. This article also demonstrates how members of the committees want to keep as much of their power as possible. Senator Warner of Virginia was the first to voice to concerns as the bill was about to be passed. He is chairman of the Armed Services Committee and has been siding with the Pentagon who is expressing concerns about the passage of this bill. The passage of the Intelligence bill would cause a loss of oversight authority for the Armed Services committee in the Senate and the House because the national intelligence director would be responsible for overseeing some of these agencies. I understand that there are concerns about the passage of this bill because vital information will have to be shared between the agencies but this is an example where I see that being a member certain committees can cause a congressman to not look at the entire benefit but at what power they are losing a result of the bill. The bill also shows all the political manuvering that goes on to get a bill passed even if this bill will benefit the country. Loss of power for Warner and the other members of the Armed Services committee means that they may not be able to bring the same amount of money home that they used too, like Warner bringing home money for the Norfolk Navy bases. This article also demonstrates how a person's power based on the position they hold can influence public policy in the Congress. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/05/politics/05panel.html?oref=login http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-12-04-intel-bill_x.htm