News

Time to get serious about reforms

A Times Editorial
Published November 24, 2004

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Regardless of the reason, Congress' failure to pass a bill reorganizing the nation's intelligence agencies may not be a such a bad thing. It gives Washington more time to work on a reorganization that is faithful to the recommendations from the 9/11 commission.

It also gives President Bush time to show he is serious about persuading recalcitrant House Republicans he is serious about intelligence reform. To some, the stalemate before Congress' Thanksgiving recess was evidence that the president doesn't have as much clout as expected following his re-election. But others suggest Bush has only appeared to support the reorganization bill, while providing tacit approval to key GOP lawmakers who held up the measure - opposed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other powerful Pentagon interests.

The bill's supporters have mostly shrugged off the notion that Congress is acting too quickly to implement such a major overhaul, which would place most of America's 15 intelligence agencies under a single national intelligence director and create a national counterterrorism center. But substantive questions remain over how the chain of command would work under the new system and which budgets the intelligence director would control.

The legislation is too important to be rushed. And some of the House Republicans' demands would thwart serious reform and create new civil liberties concerns. The new Congress should come back in January to debate the proposed changes more thoroughly. The degree to which President Bush puts his newly earned political capital to work in this effort will prove his own sincerity on the issue.

[Last modified November 24, 2004, 00:09:21]

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