9/11 Commission, Victims' Families Pressure Lawmakers to Pass Intel Reform
WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2004 — -- During their grim reunion at a news conference today, members of the independent, bipartisan 9/11 commission -- now officially dissolved -- pleaded with House Republicans to stop blocking the intelligence reform bill that would coordinate the nation's spy agencies.
"Our request to our nation's leaders today is: Give us a vote. Pass this bill," said former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, who served as chairman of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. "Reform is an urgent matter, and reform simply must not wait until after the next attack."
If passed, the legislation would, among other things, create a new national intelligence director with budgetary control over all aspects of the nation's intelligence agencies.
"The window of opportunity for reform will not stay open long," said the panel's vice chairman, former Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana.
Some families of 9/11 victims are now making daily trips to Washington to make their voices heard.
"We hear continued pointed threats from the terrorists, yet a strategic plan to make our country safer is in limbo," said Mary Fetchet, whose son Brad died in the World Trade Center. It was Fetchet who pushed lawmakers to establish the commission in the first place.
If Congress fails in the next few days to create a new system for coordinating the nation's intelligence, the new Congress will have to start from scratch next year.
Commissioners today asked Vice President Dick Cheney to get more involved. President Bush, on an official visit to Canada, insisted he is pressuring his fellow Republicans to act.
"I want a bill," Bush told reporters in Ottawa today. "Let's see if I can say it as plainly as I can. I am for the intelligence bill."
But some Republicans say they still are not sure how strongly Bush supports the bill.
"Ultimately if we don't have a vote on Sept. 11 [intelligence reform], it will be my feeling that the president didn't weigh in strongly enough," said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn.
