GOP Blocks Action on Senate Intelligence Authorization Bill

[kpete]

(sorry if this is a dupe, I had not seen it before and wanted to share)


GOP Blocks Action on Senate Intelligence Authorization Bill

By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 23, 2005; Page A07

Senate Republicans late Wednesday blocked the authorization bill that guides the country's intelligence programs. It was the first time in 27 years that the bill had failed to pass before the end of the calendar year.

The Republican "hold" on the bill blocked what was a planned adoption by unanimous consent. The bill will now wait for Congress to return from its winter recess in late January. "An anonymous Republican placed a hold on the bill and prevented the Senate from working its will," Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said yesterday in a statement on the floor. "As a result, the bill can't go forward."


Reid said the delay meant that "vital intelligence operations are on hold while the bill languishes." But congressional and intelligence community sources said it would not affect current intelligence programs, which are also guided by defense authorizations and appropriations.

Democrats were informed last week that Republicans would clear the bill if three amendments, two by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and one by Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), would be stripped from the consent agreement.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/22/AR2005122201662.html

[bigtree]

1. just to protect the daily Iraq briefings of Bush and Clinton (Kennedy)

and the locations of BUSH'S TORTURE BASES (Kerry)