PROPOSAL Bush OKs giving intelligence czar some spending control

Bush didn't go far enough, some lawmakers said.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON -- President Bush, bowing to election-year pressure, unveiled a plan Wednesday that would give the proposed national intelligence director authority over spending by some key intelligence programs.
But the proposal stops short of what members of the independent Sept. 11 commission recommended and didn't go as far as legislation proposed Tuesday by a bipartisan group of legislators led by Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
Congressional GOP leaders called the White House proposal a positive step, but some lawmakers of both parties said the president hadn't gone far enough, and the campaign of Sen. John Kerry accused the president of "half measures."
Bush outlined his proposal in a White House meeting with key lawmakers from both parties.
Details of proposal
Under his proposal, the new national intelligence director would have the power to set budgets for the CIA and nonmilitary portions of the national intelligence community.
The intelligence director would also coordinate domestic and foreign intelligence among other agencies, such as the FBI and various Cabinet departments, including Homeland Security, Treasury, State and Defense.
But the new position would have no power over Defense Department intelligence programs, which account for about 80 percent of federal intelligence spending, and would not select the heads of the various intelligence agencies.
House Republican leader Tom Delay of Texas, who attended the White House session, said the president's proposal was not likely to be the last word on reorganizing the intelligence community. "Congress will want to have a voice on everything and not have all of this done with executive order," he said.
A big change
Despite Democratic criticism, Wednesday's announcement was a significant shift in position from Aug. 2, when Bush endorsed the creation of a national intelligence director, but said the position should not control budgets but instead coordinate intelligence agencies.
Since then, intelligence experts have testified to Congress that without power over money, the new director would simply be a figurehead.
The 9-11 Commission proposed that the new intelligence director be given control over budgets, personnel and technology in the nation's 14 intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency, the National Geospatial Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office. That way the new director would be better able to coordinate strategy and share information for the operations and analysis, the commission said.
But the White House said in a statement that Bush did not want to move those agencies out of the control of the Defense Department to avoid "disruption of the war effort that a more far reaching restructuring could create."