Sen. Rockefellar proposes intel reforms

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- Sen. John Rockefeller, D-W.Va., has offered another intelligence reform proposal to what is becoming a growing list in the U.S. Congress.

The plan submitted by top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee closely resembles the set of recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission and rejects a more radical plan proposed by committee chairman Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan.

The Democrat's proposal calls for the creation of a national intelligence director with power over the nation's entire intelligence structure and full budgetary authority.

That plan has received a great deal of criticism from within the intelligence community and Pentagon officials, who currently control the vast majority of the nation's intelligence budget.

Roberts has suggested dismantling the Central Intelligence Agency, the main civilian foreign intelligence agency.

Neither proposal is ultimately expected to carry much weight in the Senate as GOP leaders have placed the task of creating a final bill in the hands of Government Affairs Committee Chairman Susan Collins, R-Maine.