Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said all indications point to a relatively smooth confirmation for Porter Goss
Senate GOP plans for Goss’s CIA confirmation
By Lauren Shepherd
Senate Republican leaders plan to move ahead with the confirmation of Rep. Porter Goss (R-Fla.) as CIA director as early as next week, despite lingering concerns that a confirmation could deflate congressional efforts to pass intelligence reform.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said yesterday he plans to have Goss confirmed during the week of Sept. 20. The senator said he expects the Senate to finish work on the homeland security appropriations bill by the middle of next week and then move directly to Goss’s confirmation. The Senate began work on the appropriations bill yesterday.
Rep. Porter Goss
Frist said “it makes no sense” to delay the confirmation since Goss “ultimately … will be confirmed.”
Goss, who has been an ardent supporter of the president, was tapped by Bush to head the troubled CIA last month. Despite the former undercover operative’s recent flair for partisanship, most Democrats acknowledge he will probably be confirmed. After his nomination, Goss resigned as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she was “very concerned” about Goss’s confirmation and its impact on intelligence reform legislation.
“There’s a rumor going around that if he’s confirmed, there will be no progress made [on intelligence reform],” Feinstein said.
Feinstein said she is particularly worried about the structure of the CIA and how to eradicate the intelligence failures that have plagued the agency in recent years.
“To be frank, the problems in intelligence didn’t have anything to do with the Defense Department,” she said, adding that the CIA has rightly shouldered most of the responsibility for faulty intelligence.
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), who chairs the intelligence committee, has also expressed concern about how the CIA functions. Roberts recently introduced a bill that would break apart the agency and transfer all intelligence-gathering responsibilities to a national intelligence director. The plan — which is much bolder than the recommendations made by the bipartisan Sept. 11 commission — has yet to attract widespread support in the Senate. It is unclear how Goss’s confirmation would affect consideration of the Roberts plan.
Despite Roberts’s idea and lingering questions over the CIA’s performance, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said all indications point to a relatively smooth confirmation for Goss.
“I presume he’ll go through,” Dodd said, while cautioning that the implications of Goss’s confirmation have yet to be determined.
Several Democratic senators agreed with Dodd and said it was too soon to tell how Goss’s confirmation would affect the timeline for implementing the Sept. 11 commission’s recommendations, while implying they may seek assurances that his confirmation will not deter needed reforms.
With the confirmation looming, Bush and administration officials met with a bipartisan group of senior lawmakers yesterday morning to discuss intelligence reforms. In a shift from previous statements, Bush said he now supports granting a national intelligence director “full budgetary authority.”
“We’ll talk to members of Congress about how to implement that,” Bush said. “I look forward to working with the members to get a bill to my desk as quickly as possible.”
Later in the day, Frist expressed his commitment to intelligence reform and said he believes Congress will be able to give the president legislation that enjoys broad, bipartisan support.
“We need to deliver,” he said. “We will deliver in response to the president’s call.
Bush refrained from giving Congress a deadline for passing legislation, but said he would be submitting a plan for how to legislate the recommendations.
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) told reporters before the party’s weekly policy luncheon that “there were conflicting views about addressing the urgency” of reforming the intelligence community, but he said he “sensed there was a feeling of urgency” from the administration.
Some members of Congress are jumping ahead and introducing their own bills without Bush’s input. On Tuesday, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) introduced a 280-page bill that would implement all 41 recommendations. Daschle has said he supports the bill.
Yesterday, House Democratic leaders, led by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), followed suit and introduced a similar bill, but it lacks GOP support.
© 2004 The Hill
