Congress, Reorganize Thyself By Christopher Shays and Carolyn Maloney

[jbfam4]

Congress, Reorganize Thyself

By Christopher Shays and Carolyn Maloney
Wednesday, December 22, 2004; Page A27

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18008-2004Dec21.html

During the monumental struggle to pass much-needed intelligence reforms, one absolute truth about Washington was reinforced: The hardest thing to do in this town is to take someone's power away. It does not matter if pending legislation is vital to our national security or even if it is three years overdue; it's only human nature to want to protect one's turf.

If the Pentagon's objection to a change in budget authority was the major obstacle to passing the intelligence bill, fierce opposition from powerful committee chairmen in Congress is an even larger threat to achieving one of the Sept. 11 commission's top recommendations: reorganization of Congress to better oversee intelligence and homeland security operations.


The full reforms sought by the commission have not yet been achieved. Congress must now reorganize to better oversee national security issues, because, as the commission found, the present system has too many overlapping claims to oversight and too little accountability. It is a proven recipe for disaster.


At the same time, such reorganization is perhaps the biggest threat to some elected officials' long-standing budgetary and authoritative control. As a result, proposals to change homeland security and intelligence oversight and budgetary authority are meeting major opposition from committee chairmen.

It is unconscionable that, in this post-Sept. 11 world, permanent full congressional committees dedicated to homeland security and intelligence do not exist. What's worse, until recently, rumors were fast and furious that the Select Committee on Homeland Security would be disbanded after just two years.