INTELLIGENCE BILL House votes to revamp agencies

The legislation would create a new national intelligence director.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House voted Tuesday to overhaul a national intelligence network that failed to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks, combining under one official control of 15 spy agencies, intensifying aviation and border security and allowing more wiretaps of suspected terrorists.
"We have come a long way toward taking steps that will ensure that we do not see another September 11th," said House Rules chairman David Dreier, R-Calif. Now "we have in place a structure that will ensure that we have the intelligence capability to deal with conflicts on the ground wherever they exist."
The House voted 336-75 to send the Senate legislation to create a new national intelligence director, establish a counterterrorism center, set priorities for intelligence gathering and tighten U.S. borders. The measure would implement the biggest change to U.S. intelligence gathering and analysis since the creation of the CIA after World War II to deal with the newly emerging Cold War.
'Better tools'
The new structure should help the nation's 15 intelligence agencies work together to protect the country from attacks like the ones that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, lawmakers said.
"I have always said that good people need better tools. Here come the tools to help good people succeed," said Rep. Jane Harman of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
The GOP-controlled Senate plans to pass the bill today and send it to President Bush for his signature.
Congressional approval would be a victory for Bush, whose leadership was questioned after House Republicans refused to vote on the bill two weeks ago despite his urging.
Hard lobbying
Heavy and persistent lobbying by the bipartisan Sept. 11 commission and families of attack victims kept the legislation alive through the summer political conventions, the election and a post-election lame duck session of Congress. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney also pushed hard in recent days.
Bush's support was "important for the future of the president's relations with members of Congress," said Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee and the lead Senate negotiator.
The Sept. 11 commission, in its July report, said disharmony among the nation's 15 intelligence agencies contributed to the inability of government officials to stop the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The government failed to recognize the danger posed by Al-Qaida and was ill-prepared to respond to the terrorist threat, the report concluded.