Senate Democrat pushes for quick action on intelligence reorganization

A single manager is needed immediately to oversee the federal intelligence community, and failing to create such a position leaves the nation vulnerable to terrorist attacks, a senior Senate Democrat said Thursday.

"Proceeding with caution is the equivalent in this case of moving at your own peril," Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., ranking member of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, told the Defense Writers Group.

The former Democratic presidential nominee is a chief sponsor of intelligence reform legislation that the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee unanimously approved Wednesday. The Senate will begin debating the proposed reform package next week. The House is crafting its own bill.

On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of former lawmakers, White House officials and national intelligence experts urged a more cautious approach to intelligence reform and advised Congress to delay a vote on the legislation until after November's presidential election.

"Intelligence reform is too important to undertake at campaign's breakneck speed," the group, among them former secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, former Defense secretaries Frank Carlucci and William Cohen and former Sens. Bill Bradley and Gary Hart, said in a Sept. 21 news release.

Since the 9/11 Commission's report was released in July, lawmakers have moved aggressively to craft reform legislation, even holding hearings when Congress was in recess this summer. Lieberman and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, introduced their legislation on Sept. 15.

Lieberman, there is "no one in charge" of the nation's varied intelligence organizations, so lawmakers needed to move quickly.

The proposed legislation would create a powerful national intelligence director with budget, personnel and management authorities over both military and nonmilitary intelligence organizations. Lieberman said the new director would have the "muscle" to force those organizations to work more closely in sharing information.

As for the new director, Lieberman said, that person should have a background in intelligence, maybe even a military background, and preferably experience in creating new organizations.

"Ultimately, I see this as a management job," he said, "so I think the most important characteristic is to get someone who is a good, tough manager."