Senate panel rejects fixed term for national intelligence director

The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Tuesday rejected two contentious amendments to committee legislation that would overhaul the nation's intelligence community.

During a committee markup of the bill, members voted 10-7 to defeat an amendment, offered by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., that sought to ensure political pressure would not influence the intelligence provided to the president by creating a fixed, five-year term for the new position of national intelligence director.

The underlying bill, sponsored by Senate Governmental Affairs Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, and ranking member Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., placed no term limits on the new position.

Both Collins and Lieberman said they had initially leaned toward a fixed term for the director, but testimony from CIA and FBI officials and members of the 9/11 Commission caused them to reconsider.

In an effort to address members' concerns, Lautenberg modified the amendment at the suggestion of Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., to allow the president to dismiss the director before the expiration of the five-year term. But members remained concerned the term limit could lead to a situation in which the NID might not be an effective adviser if he or she is unable to retain the president's confidence.

The director, Collins emphasized, "must serve at the pleasure of the president."

A second amendment, offered by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and co-sponsored by Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., would have endowed the new intelligence director with personnel authority over the heads of the nation's intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the Pentagon's National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Reconnaissance Office and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

The latter four are considered combat support agencies whose main mission is to provide intelligence to the military. They are currently housed within the Defense Department.

While the Collins-Lieberman bill proposes to give the new intelligence director significant budget authority over these agencies, it would not sever them from the Defense secretary's purview.

Specter said his amendment would give the director "sufficient authority to really be in charge." Shelby challenged the committee to implement "real reform," noting that the underlying bill fails to give the director the authority needed to provide leadership and accountability. "Day-to-day operational control" is necessary, he said, to complement the budget authority the underlying bill seeks to provide.

Collins opposed the amendment, asserting that the underlying bill "strikes the right balance" between the authorities designated to different parts of the intelligence community. She added that Specter's measure could also unnecessarily burden the new intelligence director with too much work, some of which might not even be related to the intelligence mission. The amendment failed on a 12-5 roll call vote.

The committee is slated to continue deliberating the bill Wednesday.