June 22, 2004

HOUSE DEMOCRATS DEMAND STRONGER INTELLIGENCE BILL
- Unanimous, Unprecedented Vote Against Bill that Underfunds Counter-Terrorism Efforts -

Washington, DC - In a press conference today, all Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee called for a stronger intelligence authorization bill and stronger congressional oversight of intelligence matters.

The press conference followed yesterday's markup of the annual intelligence authorization bill, the legislation that allocates money to the nation's intelligence programs. Despite efforts by the Democratic members of the Committee, the bill falls far short of what the Intelligence Community needs to safeguard the security of this nation, especially at a time when the community is without coordinated leadership and has experienced the biggest intelligence failures of all time - all in the past three years.

In the mark up, Rep. Jane Harman (CA), Ranking Democrat on the Committee, pointed out that "in this country there is no such thing as secret law," as she urged that the legislative amendments be considered in an open mark up. Her effort was rebuffed and, on a party-line vote, the proceedings were closed. In fact, all amendments offered by the Democrats to strengthen the legislative portions of the bill were defeated on party-line votes. Democrats unanimously opposed reporting the bill.

"As one who has consistently voted for every intelligence authorization bill during five terms in Congress, and who represents a district central to producing intelligence technology, this was a very difficult vote," said Harman. "My vote is intended to send an unmistakable message that this bill needs to be stronger."

Reps. Harman, Reyes (TX), Boswell (IA), Peterson (MN), Cramer (AL), Eshoo (CA), Holt (NJ) and Ruppersberger (MD) listed the following reasons for their opposition:

The bill provides 25% of the additional funds the Intelligence Community needs for counterterrorism efforts. An amendment to provide full funding offered by Reps. Peterson, Boswell and Cramer was defeated.

The Congress and the American people have been misled and frustrated in their effort to get to the bottom of the abuses at Abu Ghraib and U.S. dealings with Chalabi. The majority defeated efforts by Reps. Reyes and Eshoo to strengthen oversight and demand the information needed to ensure that the Congress and the American public get the straight story.

Harman's amendment to add HR 4104, The Intelligence Transformation Act, to restructure the Intelligence Community was also defeated, although the majority promised hearings to consider Intelligence Community reform.

"Fully funding and fixing intelligence is essential to protecting Americans from terrorist attacks. The Republicans have ignored these issues for too long, and we are not going to go along with it," said Rep. Collin Peterson.

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