[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 120 (Wednesday, September 29, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9867-S9868]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning the Senate will resume 
consideration of the intelligence reform bill. As our colleagues know, 
several amendments are currently pending to the bill, including the 
Specter intelligence consolidation amendment. We do hope to reach a 
time agreement on that amendment this morning, allowing us to vote on 
the Specter amendment. I know Senator Specter is here. I hope we make 
real progress on that amendment this morning. Hopefully, we can have a 
vote sometime this morning. The chairman and ranking member, of course, 
will be here to work through pending amendments as well as those that 
may be offered today.
  I was just talking to the Democratic leader. We are going to have 
votes throughout the day, as we continue to move forward on this bill. 
In addition, because of a number of amendments we know we have to 
consider and will consider--I do not know the entire range--it is very 
likely that we will need to continue to work throughout today, 
tomorrow, possibly Friday, and we cannot rule out having votes on 
Friday, and indeed on Monday. Many times we try to schedule votes such 
that we pay deference to individual Senators' schedules, and we will 
try to do that as well.
  On the other hand, as we all know, we are going to depart on October 
8, and with that we have a huge amount of business to do, with this 
very bill, the single greatest reform bill on intelligence in the last 
50 years, and we need to continue to work with the extensions, the 
continuing resolution, address transportation, address welfare, and 
have the appropriations bills as well. So from a scheduling standpoint, 
I ask for real consideration by our colleagues in that we need to move 
expeditiously, get the amendments to the floor, and have them 
appropriately debated.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, will the majority leader yield for a 
question?
  Mr. FRIST. I am happy to yield.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, the majority leader and I have been 
talking the last couple days with regard to the schedule for this 
particular bill. I would ask the majority leader if he could again 
indicate his desire, and certainly one that I can support, which would 
set in motion a series of events requiring today that all amendments be 
listed; that is, we would have a finite list, and that by tomorrow all 
amendments be filed, and that at some point in this debate, in the next 
couple of days, all amendments be offered.
  I think it is very important for us to have a clear understanding of 
the universe of amendments that are there. If we get that finite list 
this morning, or sometime through the earlier part of the day, and then 
the order requiring that all amendments be filed so we know exactly 
what the language is for those amendments, and then offered, we would 
be in that position.
  I ask the majority leader if that is his intent. And we could work 
through the day with that expectation in mind.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, through the Chair, in response, as we 
discussed yesterday, if we could get the list of amendments, I think we 
said by about 10 o'clock this morning--and I think those lists have 
been coming in--and the filing deadline, let's discuss that

[[Page S9868]]

over the course of the morning. It would be great if we could do it 
even late today so we could work on those over the course of tonight. 
But, again, we defer to leadership and the managers, but it would be 
great to have that language. That would give people from last night 
over the course of today to finalize that language. So I agree 
weakheartedly.
  I would just suggest that maybe we could have that filing deadline 
sometime today or this evening and have staff work over the course of 
the day rather than tomorrow. Again, it is just so that we can see what 
the universe is and we can systematically put a little bit of a sense 
of urgency on getting people to focus on the bill itself. But I agree 
wholeheartedly, let's have a list here in the next 20 minutes or so, 
and then mutually establish a filing deadline by which we can actually 
see the language.
  Mr. DASCHLE. I would just ask the majority leader if it is his view 
as well, since these amendments require legislative drafting, that all 
Senators ought to understand that the period for drafting these 
amendments could expire as early as tomorrow. So they need to get their 
amendments to legislative counsel to make sure they are in concert with 
the pending bill. I ask if the majority leader shares that view.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I do. I think our colleagues can tell from 
the dialog going on that we, as leadership, are trying to give a 
framework to accelerate the process that is currently underway in 
discussing a very important bill. Our colleagues have met in various 
caucuses. I know a lot of our Members on this side of the aisle are 
meeting right now, and we are putting forth the same message to bring 
those amendments forward. And the managers will process those in an 
orderly way.
  Mr. President, I want to very briefly comment on the bill. We 
received yesterday the administration's statement of policy that is in 
support of the Collins-Lieberman bill. I think that was a very 
important statement for us to receive to show the administration's 
strong support. In the expression of support, and support for passage 
of the Collins-Lieberman bill, there were comments made about certain 
provisions about which they have caution flags. That will be addressed 
appropriately on the floor of the Senate.
  So I am glad we received the letter yesterday. It allows us to 
address many of those concerns through debate and amendment over today 
and tomorrow and the next several days.
  The administration specifically backs the creation of a national 
intelligence director with--and I quote from the letter--``full, 
effective, and meaningful budget authorities and other authorities to 
manage the Intelligence Community, including statutory authority for 
the newly created National Counterterrorism Center.''
  I mention that because it shows the huge support for reform. There is 
nothing really that new about the reform. There have been 13 reports, 
national commissions over the last 10, 15, 20 years, 13 different ones 
urging intelligence reform. Now it is on the floor of the Senate. 
Indeed, we will accomplish that.
  I do want to stress that we have both the reform of the executive 
branch, which is mainly the Collins-Lieberman bill, but we also have 
the internal reform within this body itself for oversight. Both of 
those, of course, were recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. The 
Democratic leader and I have a task force working on the internal 
reform. Both of those elements of reform are going to be dealt with 
before we depart. That is a lot of business to accomplish, and that is 
why there is a sense of urgency in moving along.
  Yesterday, we voted on a number of amendments, including the McCain 
amendment and the Hutchison amendment. We will see more provisions of 
the McCain-Lieberman bill come through with amendments to be addressed 
on the Senate floor as they look at specific 9/11 recommendations.
  We do want to do this expeditiously. After we pass the bill, we have 
to go to the conference with the House and work out any differences 
between the two bills.
  I also want to mention briefly the news that came out regarding the 
FBI and the shortage of linguists to translate intelligence materials. 
That sort of news is alarming. After 9/11, we know we can't be behind 
the curve. Our enemies are smart. They are clever, resourceful. We have 
seen it time and again. We need an intelligence system that will block 
them at every turn. It is my hope that the Collins-Lieberman 
legislation will help address this problem. The recruitment of 
linguists is specifically cited as one of the issues the bill seeks to 
address.
  Moreover, in the bill the new national intelligence director will 
have the authority to prioritize and allocate resources appropriately. 
Clearly, this issue would likely fall under that person's purview. 
Whether it is strengthening the FBI or buttressing the CIA or 
integrating our intelligence capabilities, these are among the many 
reasons we have to move with deliberate speed to finish this 
legislation. Nothing less than America's national security is at stake.
  I yield the floor.

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