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White House Opposes Provision in Senate Bill to Create Counterproliferation Center By Mike Nartker WASHINGTON — With House and Senate lawmakers set to meet today to develop a compromise intelligence reform bill for final approval, the White House has come out against a provision in the Senate version that would create a national counterproliferation center (see GSN, Oct. 12). Earlier this month, the House and Senate each approved separate versions of legislation intended to implement the intelligence reform proposals put forth this summer by the Sept. 11 commission — chiefly the creation of a national director of intelligence to oversee the U.S. intelligence community and the creation of a National Counterterrorism Center to conduct counterterrorism-related intelligence analysis and operational planning. During final debate on its bill, the Senate approved an amendment by Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) that would create a similar center to focus on counterproliferation efforts. “As the National Counterterrorism Center focuses on the customers and users of these dangerous technologies and materials (the terrorists), the NCPC [National Counterproliferation Center] will be focusing on the suppliers and brokers of these items. The NCPC will endeavor to stop these activities before they ever reach the bad guys,” Frist said in a statement earlier this month. In a letter sent yesterday to two members of the House-Senate conference committee developing a compromise bill, the White House came out against the creation of a counterproliferation center, saying instead that it preferred to wait for the recommendations of a presidential commission established in February to examine WMD-related intelligence. “Mandating creation of a National Counterproliferation Center … or other similar organization with insufficient study is premature and risks disrupting ongoing efforts to counter the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,” says the letter, sent to House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) and Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-Maine). The letter was signed by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and White House Office of Management and Budget Director Joshua Bolton. A spokeswoman for Frist said earlier this week that the senator was “optimistic” that his amendment would be included in the compromise intelligence reform bill. Members of the House-Senate conference committee are scheduled to meet today to work out the differences between the two intelligence reform bills. Among such differences is the greater level of budgetary and personnel authority provided to the new national intelligence director through the Senate bill, as well as a number of nonintelligence-related provisions in the House bill regarding issues such as expanded antiterrorism powers and border security. In its letter yesterday, the White House came out in favor of the budgetary and personnel authority included in the Senate bill, but also reiterated its opposition to a provision to declassify the total intelligence budget requested by the president and appropriated by Congress. Instead, it favored the House bill’s stance on the issue, which would keep the amount of the total intelligence budget classified. While criticizing both the House and Senate bills for including “excessive and unnecessary details” concerning the structure of the office of the national intelligence director, the White House singled out several provisions in the Senate bill, such as one to create an intelligence ombudsman intended to prevent the politicialization of intelligence. The Senate bill, the White House warned, would create a “cumbersome new bureaucracy” in the national intelligence director’s office that would “hinder, not help, the effort to protect national security.” The White House also said that it “strongly supports” the antiterrorism- and border security-related provisions in the House intelligence bill, which had come under fire from Democratic lawmakers. The administration added, though, that it “strongly opposes” the “overbroad expansion” of authority in the House bill to deport illegal immigrants without court review. Both House and Senate leaders have said they hope to have a final intelligence bill sent to President George W. Bush for his signature before the November elections. Some lawmakers, as well the head of the Sept. 11 commission, have expressed concern, though, that the bill may not be completed by then, according to reports. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) has reportedly pushed for the conference committee to complete its work this week so the House can vote on the compromise version next week. In its letter, the White House called on House and Senate lawmakers to work quickly to complete a final bill. “The administration urges the conferees to reach agreement on an effective bill to strengthen the nation’s intelligence capabilities that both houses can pass and the president can sign into law as soon as possible to meet the nation’s security needs,” the letter says.
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