[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 126 (Thursday, October 7, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10677-S10678]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE REFORM BILL

  Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I rise today to express my pleasure that 
yesterday the Senate incorporated an important amendment I authored 
with my colleagues, Senators Bingaman and Harkin, into the National 
Intelligence Reform Act of 2004. Our amendment strengthens Congress's 
role in protecting our civil liberties as we move forward with the 
reform of our intelligence structure. The randomness of the terrorist 
acts of September 11, and the relative ease with which they were 
perpetrated, exposed serious gaps and deficiencies in our intelligence 
and security systems. In the aftermath of those attacks, we established 
the 9/11 Commission, which through its seminal report and 
recommendations has helped to clearly identify critical problem areas 
and recommend solutions to remedy them. And now, through this National 
Intelligence Reform Act, we are working to implement these 
recommendations in a way that strengthens the intelligence 
infrastructure and increases synergy and coordination within our 
intelligence community.
  But in the aftermath of September 11--in our vigilance to protect 
against future attacks and to comprehensively overhaul our intelligence 
system--we run the risk of enacting procedures that could diminish or 
overrun our civil liberties. The Commission recognized this risk and in 
one of its most important recommendations has wisely suggested the 
establishment of a civil liberties oversight board within the executive 
branch. In the spirit of that recommendation the authors of the 
underlying bill have provided for such a board whose purpose it is to 
continuously review the impact on civil liberties of intelligence 
gathering initiatives and operations devised under the new National 
Intelligence Program, NIP. To that end, the board will be charged with 
reviewing new proposals under the NIP, advising on the civil rights 
implications of those proposals, and determining whether proposals will 
expand powers at the expense of our civil liberties.
  The question arises, however, as to what the board can do with a 
finding that a violation has occurred. Under the bill as currently 
drafted the Board is not authorized to intervene or put any stopgaps in 
place through the legislative or regulatory process. I recognize that 
the intelligence community must have the ability to implement its 
proposals and operations with a level of flexibility and expedience. 
But, I also recognize that the board must have the ability to check 
initiatives that infringe on our most sacred constitutional rights. Our 
amendment strikes a balance between these two goals by making Congress 
aware of specific instances in which the board has significant concerns 
about a given proposal's adverse effect on civil liberties. 
Specifically, this amendment requires that the board include, within 
its biannual reports, a detailed accounting of each time the board 
finds that: No. 1, a proposal to create a new means of gathering 
intelligence will unnecessarily infringe on civil liberties; and No. 2, 
that finding is not adequately addressed by those implementing or 
creating the means.
  By receiving this information, Congress will be able to keep pace 
with the implementation of national intelligence reform as well as 
provide guidance on ways to refine and calibrate new intelligence 
gathering initiatives so that we balance security interests with 
constitutional rights. In short, the amendment provides Congress the 
information it needs to accomplish a critical part of its oversight 
function, ensuring that while we work to keep our country safe we also 
safeguard the constitutional freedoms upon which it was founded. Again, 
I thank the managers for including this important

[[Page S10678]]

amendment in the underlying legislation.


                            PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

  Mr. BAYH. Mr. President. I commend the Senator from New York for her 
work on the section of the McCain-Lieberman-Bayh-Specter amendment to 
the 9/11 legislation that addresses education in the Muslim world. The 
provision commits the United States to taking a comprehensive approach 
to universal basic education in Muslim countries and requires our 
government to develop a cooperative plan to achieve this visionary 
goal. The 9/11 Commission understood that expanding education that 
emphasizes moderation, tolerance and the skills needed to compete in 
the global economy in these countries will create an alternative to 
hate and will show that the United States is committed to expanding 
opportunity in countries where we are often competing with our enemies 
for hearts and minds. It is only through a long-term public diplomacy 
strategy that we will win the war on terrorism, and modern education is 
a foundation of that effort. I would like to thank Senator Clinton for 
her assistance in drafting the education provisions in this bill We 
could not have achieved such a comprehensive approach to education 
without her involvement, and we appreciate her efforts.
  Mrs. CLINTON. I would like to thank Senator Bayh, along with Senators 
McCain, Lieberman and Specter, for stepping forward to ensure that the 
9/11 Commission's recommendations on education become a key part of our 
Nation's anti-terrorism strategy. As you know, I have introduced 
legislation to promote universal basic education in all of the world's 
developing countries by 2015. I am pleased that the Senators forging 
this bipartisan bill have accepted many of these recommendations, 
including creating, for the first time, a strategy to promote universal 
basic education in the Middle East and other significantly Muslim 
countries. The bill also encourages countries to come forward with 
strong national education plans for quality universal basic education 
and directs our efforts at providing support for such crucial systemic 
reform. The provisions included in this 9/11 bill represent an 
important step toward the goal of universal basic education. I want to 
thank all the leaders on this amendment for working with me on this 
issue, and I appreciate their leadership on this bill.

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