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NORFOLK, Va. - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said Tuesday that the Sept. 11 commission should continue working an additional 18 months to ensure its proposed reforms are adopted, a challenge embraced by the bipartisan panel.
With the two candidates determined to project a proactive image on the commission's work this election year, President Bush has assembled a task force to review the 10-member panel's work. Kerry has said he should implement the 5-day-old proposals immediately.
"Backpedaling and going slow is something that America can't afford," Kerry said. "It will take real, bipartisan leadership and real action to protect this country of ours."
Kerry said Bush could immediately implement many of the commission's recommendations by executive order. He said Congress should do its part and act swiftly when legislation or funding is needed.
The 10-member panel issued its final report Thursday. Under legislation that President Bush signed in March, the commission is to formally dissolve on Aug. 26.
Al Felzenberg, spokesman for the Sept. 11 commission, said Republican chairman Thomas Kean, a former New Jersey governor, supported the idea of the commission having additional time to continue its work.
Kerry spokesman David Wade said Kerry spoke via phone to the commission's vice chairman, former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., after his speech, and Hamilton supported continuing the work.
The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee will hold its first hearing on the panel's recommendations Friday, moving up its session to accommodate the schedules of the commission's two leaders. Several other House and Senate committees are also planning hearings.
White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said Monday that Bush could act within days on the report, but she would not say which of the 40 recommendations he was likely to adopt, or if he would make his own proposals.
On Tuesday, when pressed about Bush's reaction to the Kerry proposal, Buchan would only say the president is focused on the commission's recommendations "and those steps that we can take in working with the Congress to improve intelligence or to make us safer."
The commission's recommendations included creating a new intelligence center and Cabinet-level intelligence director. An intelligence-gathering center would bring a unified command to the more than dozen agencies that collect and analyze intelligence.