Date: 2004-10-07
Speaker: TOM DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Virginia

Mr. Chairman. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman. I rise today in strong support of H.R. 10. the 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act. The purpose of this landmark legislation is to address the problems and weaknesses identified by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States by improving the intelligence and security operations of the Federal Government. I am proud of what we have achieved in this legislation on behalf of the American people. who understandably are clamoring for change. It accomplishes the goal of revamping our intelligence network and makes other changes necessary to protect our national security. I would like to elaborate on a few of the provisions of the larger bill that fall within our jurisdiction at the Committee on Government Reform and why we believe they are critical to this effort. One is executive reorganization authority for intelligence agencies. H.R. 10 would give the President the power to submit reorganization plais. limited to the intelligence community. to Congress for a guaranteed upordown vote. We cannot afford to assume this legislation is a panacea that will somehow be the last word on intelligence reform. Reorganization authority is authority every President had governmentwide from 1932 to 1984. It enables the executive branch to come forward with a plan that would come to Congress for an upordown vote without amendment. The President should have the ability to make furthertweaks to the organization without having to worry about his proposal getting watereddown or just plain blocked in Congress over petty jurisdictional fights between committees. Congress. of course. retains the ultimate say. . We have enhanced informationsharing. This legislation would task the President with establishing a trusted and secure informationsharing environment to promote the shsring of intelligence information and to change the culture in the Federal Government from a "need to know" to a "need to share" basis. This initiative is the result of collaborative efforts of multiple committees of jurisdiction. The rationale for this language is straightforward. As a Nation.. we must b6 able to identify terrorist threats and .defeat them. Our success depends on collecting. analyzing. and appropriately sharing information found Jn data bases. transactions. and other sources. Streamlined financial disclosure for appointees in the intelligence community. Just about anyone who studies the Presidential appointments process realizes that it is broken. It takes too long to confirm individuals to key positions. and the process itself often drives away some of those best qualified to serve. Financial disclosure requirements are supposed to protect against conflicts of interest concerns. but they have become proxy statements for a nominees net worth. with more detail than is necessary. extending the vetting process so that nominees cannot even move forward to Senate confirmation. This legislation would return to the original intent of financial disclosures. An improved security clearance process. This legislation would assign security clearance management and oversight to the Office of the National Intelligence Director. The NID would set uniform standards and policies and require reciprocity among agencies. This would enable an individual with a top secret clearance at. say. Treasury to retain that clearance should he or she move to another agency. Previous efforts to enforce reciprocity have failed. but this legislation finally addresses this important part of the process by putting an end to the time and moneywasting practice of redundant security clearance investigations and adjudications. This redundancy drives up the cost of doing business. and this cost is ultimately passed on to the taxpayers. New Federal standards for identification cards and birth certificates. We need to have confidence that when someone shows a State drivers license to board a plane or a State birth certificate to get a passport. that the ID is valid. We -need to know that people are who they say they are. Is this a national ID card? No. We are simply saying the Federal Government must have documents that it can trust. and it is perfectly within itg right to establish minimum standards for Federal acceptance. This important provision would provide grant money to help States meet the new Federal guidelines and gives them 3 years to comply. Though States have made. strides in improving the security of drivers licenses and identification since 9/11. the commission outlined the need to establish minimum standards as a framework for improvement. This language was crafted with the assistance of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators and the National Association For Public Health and Information Systems who administer these programs for the States. They have been hard at work developing studies. best practices and guidelines on this issue. especially since the terrorist- attacks on our Nation. and this legislation closely follows those recommendations for action. Importantly. this provision is also strongly supported by the 9/11 victims families. A revitalized FBI workforce. H.R. 10 would provide for retention bonuses and critical pay authorities to help the FBI improve its intelligence directorate. It also would allow for delaysin mandatory retirements and the creation of a Reserve Service so the agency can reactivate retired employees with very specialized skills. The improvements to the operations of the Federal Government that are included in H.R. 10 are essential to making this country safer. I urge my colleagues to support this carefully crafted legislation. Mr. Chairman. I reserve the balance of my time.