WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- For the first time in 27 years, congressional officials fear there will not be an Intelligence Authorization Act passed this session of Congress.
According to lawmakers and staff from both parties, the bill was blocked in the Senate before the holiday recess by a single Republican lawmaker in a dispute over amendments requiring reports to Congress on secret detention facilities for terror suspects and access to pre-war presidential intelligence briefings on Iraq.
Now some fear that further efforts to pass the will become embroiled in the controversy about the Bush administration's secret use of warrantless national security wiretaps.
"I think we might have missed an opportunity at the end of last year," said one Democratic Senate aide who deals with intelligence issues, adding that "the window might have closed by now."
Republicans and administration officials said they would try and bring the bill up when Congress reconvenes later this year.
The 2006 Intelligence Authorization Bill, S1803, was voted out unanimously by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in October 2005; the House had already passed its version of the law back in June.
The annual bill -- which has passed every year since the establishment of the House and Senate committees on intelligence in 1978 -- provides the legislative framework within which the nation's intelligence agencies carry out their missions and spend the money Congress appropriates for them.
Money for the sprawling and fractious collection of agencies referred to as the intelligence community is contained in the classified "black" budget of the Pentagon, and funded through the secret annexes to the defense appropriations bill.
Congressional officials say that if the intelligence authorization bill does not pass this year, U.S. intelligence agencies will still be able to spend the money Congress appropriated for them, but several important reforms, improvements and innovations will be left in limbo.
Its authors say this year's Senate bill would set up an inspector general for the new director of national intelligence; strengthen counter-terrorism information-sharing by temporarily suspending parts of the Privacy Act; and make the directors of the three biggest-spending military intelligence agencies subject to Senate confirmation.
If the Senate bill does not pass, the House version will also die. Following long-standing concern from lawmakers of both parties, the House bill reduced or eliminated funding for a small number of hugely expensive satellite programs.
House committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., told United Press International at the time that the programs were on a "disastrous path" owing to poor management and "sloppy performance."
"When you put a marker down that says 'The House does not authorize any more money to be put into this program,' or 'X amount of dollars are going to fenced off until certain things happen' that is a marker in the sand that somebody has to respond to," he said.
The annual intelligence bill typically includes classified annexes running to hundreds of pages, packed with these kinds of detailed efforts to restrain, guide or direct spending and policy, according to congressional staff.
"This bill is what Congress uses to guide the intelligence (agencies)," said the Democratic Senate aide, "It deals in detail with a large number of big programs."
"One of the criticisms that's been leveled by observers is that congressional oversight (of intelligence) is weak," the aide continued. "This (failure to pass the bill) is indicative of the terrible weakness of our oversight."
The Senate bill was blocked by a Republican who exercised his/her right to remain anonymous, according to GOP staff.
Because of the way the Senate's rules are designed to ensure that debate is difficult to curtail, moving a bill through the chamber expeditiously requires a parliamentary procedure known as unanimous consent. A single objection can force Senate leaders to contemplate a lengthy floor debate, and effectively preclude consideration of a bill altogether if managers believe the legislative agenda is already too crowded.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., the senior-most Democrat on the intelligence committee, said in a floor statement just before the recess that blocking the bill was designed to prevent the passage of three amendments added to it with the consent of the GOP committee Chairman Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas.
"I am informed that one or more Republican Senators object to the inclusion of (these) amendments," said Rockefeller, "even though Chairman Roberts has accepted those amendments -- and those amendments were agreed to by the full committee."
"They told the Democratic leader's staff, 'We can't clear this with those amendments,'" explained the Democratic Senate staffer.
Two of the amendments require reports to Congress about the network of secret detention facilities reportedly operated by the CIA outside the United States. The classified reports -- from Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte about the facilities and from intelligence agency inspectors general about the welfare of individual detainees -- would be submitted to the intelligence committees of both chambers.
The third, submitted by former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, requires the White House to give the two committees copies of Presidential Daily Briefing items about Iraq from Jan. 20, 1997 -- the beginning of President Clinton's second term -- to March 19, 2003 -- the date of the U.S. invasion.
A Senate Republican staffer familiar with the issue told UPI that Roberts' main concern had been to get the bill to the floor before the recess. "To do that," the staffer said, "the chairman was prepared not to object to those amendments so that the bill could get to conference."
The staffer added just because the hold on the bill was placed by a single objector did not mean that they were alone in their views. "I'm sure there are a lot of Republican Senators who disagree with one or more of those amendments."
The staffer said that Roberts nevertheless hoped to see the bill brought up when Congress resumes work, adding that without it, "There is no guidance to the intelligence community from Congress."
White House Spokeswoman Dana Perino told UPI the administration still hoped to see the bill made law. "We will continue to work with Congress as (it) goes through the legislative process," she said.
But some observers now believe that any effort to bring the legislation to the Senate floor will inevitably become embroiled in the gathering storm of controversy over the National Security Agency's program of warrantless wiretaps on Americans calling or being called by foreign phone numbers thought linked to al-Qaida.
"There will be people (on both sides of the aisle) now who will want to (use the bill to) deal with this (NSA) issue," said the Democratic staffer, predicting that this would likely stymie efforts to pass it.
