9/11 PANEL Bush likely to take action

Kerry's advisers said 25 of the 41 reforms don't require congressional action.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
CRAWFORD, Texas -- Responding to pressure from both Congress and Democratic challenger Sen. John F. Kerry, the White House signaled Sunday that President Bush was likely in coming days to adopt at least some of the reforms recommended by the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The move suggests that after an initial noncommittal response, the president and his staff have decided to act as soon as possible on some of the less-complicated reforms in order to appear responsive to commission -- and public -- demands.
"The president could act within days on [some] recommendations included in the 9/11 commission report," a White House official said on condition he not be identified. "Other recommendations may take longer." He was not specific.
Kerry has raised the heat on Bush, embracing the recommendations immediately after they were announced Thursday and pledging to implement them his first day in office if elected.
"There are imperatives that we must move on rapidly," he said Thursday.
Bush's stance
By contrast, Bush had praised the proposed reforms as "serious" but promised only to study them carefully.
That stance began to shift Friday when White House officials announced the president had asked his chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., to lead a Cabinet-level task force to determine how many of the recommendations could be implemented by presidential order, without waiting for legislation from Congress.
But Kerry overtook the president again over the weekend, with his advisers announcing Sunday that they had already completed their own analysis and determined that 25 of the 41 recommendations did not require congressional action.
The White House official insisted that the president was acting with dispatch, noting that Card had been in touch with the task-force members over the weekend.
Though many of the recommendations can be implemented simply by executive order, the most sweeping changes -- including the creation of a director of national intelligence, who would oversee all 15 U.S. intelligence agencies, and formation of an interagency counterterrorism center, replacing discrete counterterrorism units in individual agencies -- would require legislation.
On those matters, Congress needs to move quickly, commission members said Sunday.
"Every day that passes is an increased risk [of attack] if we do not make changes," commission deputy chairman Lee H. Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana, said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
On vacation
Congress adjourned Friday for a six-week summer holiday. Asked what sort of message that sent to the American people, Hamilton responded: "Not a very good one. ... We all agree on the urgency of this. We all think that if we do not act quickly, we increase the risk to the American people. We all agree that the status quo is unacceptable."
Eager to show progress, Senate leaders announced Friday that the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which has jurisdiction over any government reorganization, would schedule hearings in August, even though Congress would be out of session.