Conferees making little progress on intelligence overhaul

Having passed the deadline for reaching a deal in time to call Congress back to pass an intelligence overhaul bill before Election Day, House-Senate conferees have yet to reach any agreements on the legislation, sources said Wednesday.

Not only does the slow pace of negotiations rule out action by next Tuesday, it may hurt the prospects of enacting the bill during next month's lame duck session.

"There are no agreements," a spokeswoman for Senate Governmental Affairs ranking member Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., said Wednesday, although he added, "I think it's 50-50" the conferees could reach a deal this week.

If Congress does not pass a bill next month, lawmakers would have to start anew in the 109th Congress, according to aides. House Intelligence Chairman Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., Intelligence ranking member Jane Harman, D-Calif., Senate Governmental Affairs Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lieberman planned to meet Wednesday to continue discussions.

Negotiations remain deadlocked over creating a national intelligence director with full budget authority -- a key recommendation of the 9/11 Commission. House Republicans argue they have made concessions to give the director budget authority by allowing him to "determine" the national intelligence budget for Pentagon agencies such as the National Security Agency. But Lieberman's spokeswoman said Senate conferees have not agreed to the language because they believe funding should be channeled directly from the NID to the defense agencies. The House contends the Pentagon should first sign off on the funding.

"We have gone about as far as we can go without jeopardizing troops in the field," one House aide said.

The onus is now on House conferees to respond to a Senate counterproposal offered last weekend, Senate aides said. While acknowledging that a recent e-mail from 9/11 Commission Executive Director Philip Zelikow offered encouraging support for the latest House language, Senate aides noted that 9/11 Commission members themselves have not endorsed the House compromise and continue to support the Senate bill.

On other sticking points, a House GOP aide accused Senate conferees of holding immigration and law enforcement provisions "hostage" until a deal is reached on the NID.

"We've had scores of wasted hours where people talk and talk and talk but there is refusal to come to closure," said the aide.

Several sources said both sides have not agreed to a House compromise proposal on those provisions, despite claims of a settlement by Rep. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., last Friday. House Republicans have proposed dropping their provision expanding federal authority to expedite deportation of illegal immigrants in exchange for Senate support for tripling the number of detention facilities. They have offered to eliminate language banning foreign documents, such as the Mexican matricula card carried by immigrants, as valid forms of identification. But House Republicans are sticking to a provision, opposed by the White House, that would raise the criteria for claiming asylum and language authorizing the death penalty for convicted terrorists.