Upon their return to Washington tomorrow, lawmakers must immediately get to work figuring out a way to break the impasse on intelligence reform, President Bush demanded yesterday.
Bush has recently tuned up the heat on Congress after House Republicans put the kibosh on the reform bill, which would create a National Intelligence Director and overhaul America’s 15 intelligence agencies.
“We are safer, but we are not yet safe,” Bush said on during his weekly radio address. “The enemy is still plotting, and America must respond with urgency.”
But the reforms currently on the table don’t yet jibe entirely with Bush’s vision.
While Bush wants to give the NID full budget authority over the spy agencies, the reform bill calls only for “significant authority.”
House Speaker Dennis Hastert could simply call for an up-or-down vote on the intelligence-reform bill, but the Illinois Congressman has not said if he’ll go forward with the vote – a move that could anger fellow Republicans.
Post Wire Services