Intelligence reform bill passes Senate

Intelligence reform bill passes Senate The U.S. Senate passed a sweeping intelligence reform bill that includes many of the recommendations from the Sept. 11 Commission that looked into the nation’s antiterrorism security failures.
   The vote was 89-2. The bill, which the House passed earlier in the week during a special session, now goes to President Bush for his signature.
   The key changes revolve around the creation of a national intelligence director to coordinate the activities of the CIA and other intelligence agencies, and a national counterterrorism center to pool together intelligence from disparate agencies for comprehensive analysis. The intelligence director will also have control over the estimated $40 billion intelligence budget.
   The bill passed after language was added at the insistence of several powerful congressmen giving the Defense Department latitude to control most of the work of its own internal intelligence units for tactical operations.
   The two negative votes came from Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., who said the bill was rushed through without appropriate deliberation, and Sen. James Inhoffe, R-Okla., who wanted more controls on illegal immigration included in the legislation.
   The bill also increases security measures for airports as well as border agents and inspectors. It directs the secretary of homeland security to develop a national strategy for transportation security, and invests in extra border and transportation security technologies.
      Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and a frequent critic of the administration’s homeland security efforts, endorsed the bill, but repeated complaints that the bill still doesn’t cover the need for 100 percent x-ray screening of cargo on passenger planes; complete installation of radiation detectors at all ports of entry and measures to requiring railroads to reroute shipments of hazardous materials away from dense urban areas, a reference to the CSX line that runs four blocks from Capitol Hill.