The “9/11 bill” passed Thursday night contains some welcome elements, particularly the shifting of homeland-security money to vulnerable metropolitan areas like Washington and New York and away from less vulnerable places in the heartland. But one plaudit frequently heard for this bill simply is not deserved: the notion that it implements all of the September 11 commission recommendations. “These items as well as the rest of the conference report will address and satisfy the 9/11 commission’s recommendations and then some,” said House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, Mississippi Democrat.
Oh, the contortions over this signal campaign promise. The September 11 commission requested that Congress reform its oversight functions. It still hasn’t; the several Democratic congressional committee chairs with jurisdiction — like their Republican predecessors — don’t want to give up their newfound powers.
“Of all our recommendations, strengthening congressional oversight may be among the most difficult and important,” the commission found. “So long as oversight is governed by current congressional rules and resolutions, we believe the American people will not get the security they want and need Congress should create a single, principal point of oversight and review for homeland security.”
At present, several committees and subpanels and scores of lawmakers have a finger in the intelligence and homeland-security pies. This ensures confusion, not to mention many more opportunities to politicize issues.
Any fix would likely need to begin by centralizing intelligence oversight in the intelligence committees. That sounds straightforward enough, but it could only happen at the expense of the armed services committees and the defense subcommittees of the appropriations panels who would lose clout.
Democrats are justified in touting the new homeland-security funding measures in this bill, which are welcome. Just don’t buy the notion that all the September 11 commission recommendations are about to be fulfilled. This has been an empty campaign slogan from the get-go, and will remain that way until Congress reforms its oversight mechanisms.
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