Intelligence bill has bipartisan agreement

WASHINGTON, May 16 (UPI) -- An agreement improves the chances Congress will pass a bill that would restore funding for more CIA counter-terrorism analysts, U.S. lawmakers said.

The House and Senate appropriations committees reached tentative agreement on legislation that would set spending priorities for the 17 intelligence agencies, setting up passage of the first intelligence authorization bill since 2005, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

Democrats recently agreed to support passage of the fiscal year 2011 bill with the approval of restored funding for analysts at the CIA, aides said.

Rep. C.A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger, D-Md., the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said the decision would help "the people who worked on the [Osama] bin Laden case" and end years partisan politics.

Ruppersberger said the measure included "thousands of civilian positions above the level enacted" last year and "above the level of people currently on board."

Overall, "the bill also adds hundreds of millions of dollars for intelligence above current levels," even if the levels are below what the Obama administration originally proposed, Ruppersberger said.

The measure still must pass the Senate, but Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., chairman of the House intelligence panel, said he reached agreement with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, on the final measure.

When the fiscal 2011 measure passed the House Friday on a 392-15 vote, Rogers, a former FBI agent, called it "a solid first step for Congress and the intelligence committees in reasserting their proper role in overseeing the intelligence community."