House and Senate negotiators are working out the plan for passage of legislation to implement many of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. Once it passes, Democrats will claim victory in having implemented all the remaining recommendations. But that won’t exactly be true. Congress has ignored the commission’s recommendation on improving accountability by simplifying Congressional jurisdiction. First, the news:
Long-stalled legislation to implement some recommendations of the independent Sept. 11 commission is expected to advance to a formal House-Senate conference this week. The House Rules Committee was scheduled to meet later Monday to take up an amendment to Sept. 11 legislation (HR 1) that would merge the bill’s original provisions with a rail security section derived from a bill (HR 1401) the House passed March 27. The House would then have to appoint its conferees to negotiate a final version of the legislation… The Senate appointed its conferees last week. Aides say a formal conference likely will begin quickly, with an agreement expected as soon as the end of the week.
In discussing the legislation, Congressional leaders frequently describe this as an effort to implement ‘all the remaining recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.’ The House has made an effort at streamlining jurisdiction by creating an appropriations subcommittee specifically for intelligence oversight and which will be empowered to recommend policy changes to other subcommittees, but this new subcommittee will have no real power. And this does little to address the jurisdictional problems identified by the Commission:
The leaders of the Department of Homeland Security now appear before 88 committees and subcommittees of Congress. One expert witness (not a member of the administration) told us that this is perhaps the single largest obstacle impeding the department’s successful development. The one attempt to consolidate such committee authority, the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, may be eliminated. The Senate does not have even this… Recommendation: Congress should create a single, principal point of oversight and review for homeland security. Congressional leaders are best able to judge what committee should have jurisdiction over this department and its duties. But we believe that Congress does have the obligation to choose one in the House and one in the Senate, and that this committee should be a permanent standing committee with a nonpartisan staff.
The Senate has completely ignored this recommendation, and while the House made a pro forma attempt to address it, they seem to have made matters worse. As Representative David Dreier–the senior Republican on the House Rules Committee–spelled out when the House instituted this step:
The 9/11 Commission recommended two options for intelligence oversight. First, a joint committee based on the model of the old Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, and second, a single committee in each House of Congress combining authorizing and appropriating authorities. The proposal in front of us today does neither of those things that were recommended by the 9/11 Commission . In fact, it goes in completely the opposite direction, Madam Speaker. Rather than consolidating oversight authority into a single committee that has both authorizing and appropriating authority, it just creates a new committee that has neither.. And the 9/11 Commission was very specific about who should serve on the committee . And I quote from the 9/11 Commission report, Madam Speaker, they said, “Four of the Members appointed to this committee or committees should be a Member who also serves on each of the following additional committees, the Armed Services Committee , the Judiciary Committee , the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.” Now, Madam Speaker, where are the members of the Armed Services Committee , Judiciary Committee or the Foreign Affairs Committee ? Apparently, those aspects of our intelligence activities weren’t important enough for the promised improved oversight.
When Democrats later this week loudly proclaim that they have implemented all the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, remember the hollowness of the claim. And the action they took which probably made messy jurisdictional questions worse.
