Congressional Record United States Th of America PROCEEDINGS and DEBATES of the 109 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION
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E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 109 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION Vol. 151 WASHINGTON, TUESDAY, MAY 10, 2005 No. 60 House of Representatives The House met at 12:30 p.m. clusions reached about Iraq’s weapons committees that deal with intelligence f of mass destruction programs. matters now. The committee could gar- The 9/11 Commission took the first ner input from various groups includ- MORNING HOUR DEBATES step in identifying what ails the intel- ing the intelligence community, other The SPEAKER. Pursuant to the ligence community, by pointing out governmental organizations such as order of the House of January 4, 2005, that it’s a community in name only. It CRO, CBO and GAO, and from outside the Chair will now recognize Members needs centralized direction and coordi- groups such as think tanks, former from lists submitted by the majority nation. The intelligence reform bill Members of Congress, and experts in and minority leaders for morning hour Congress enacted last year establishes the field. debates. The Chair will alternate rec- a director of national intelligence and Moreover, both the 9/11 Commission ognition between the parties, with each tries to address this problem. and the Robb-Silverman Commission party limited to not to exceed 30 min- I also believe that Congress did not made suggestions about how Congress utes, and each Member except the ma- challenge the intelligence community should reform itself to do a better job jority leader, the minority leader or aggressively enough before we invaded with intelligence issues. These rec- the minority whip limited to not to ex- Iraq, either in the issue of weapons of ommendations should be explored in ceed 5 minutes. mass destruction, or the likely after- depth. There are a number of funda- The Chair recognizes the gentleman math of the invasion. We, in Congress mental questions that should be re- from Missouri (Mr. SKELTON) for 5 min- must help the intelligence community thought: Which committee should have utes. move beyond the cold war mentality jurisdiction and oversight responsibil- f and focus more effectively on the chal- ities for intelligence matters? Should lenges we face from the proliferation of CONGRESSIONAL REFORM OF IN- there be a separate intelligence appro- weapons of mass destruction, and from TELLIGENCE COMMUNITY OVER- priations subcommittee? Should intel- al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups SIGHT ligence responsibility in Congress con- within global reach. tinue to be divided along pro- Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise But, beyond fixing the intelligence grammatic lines, the JMIP, the today to speak about the importance of community, Congress needs to get its TIARA, and the NIP? Should the cur- our national intelligence capability own house in order. We must do a bet- rent Select Committee on Intelligence and what we in Congress must do to ter job of oversight of the intelligence be made permanent? improve it. community. Restoring effective and Mr. Speaker, these are not partisan Just a few weeks ago, the Commis- constructive Congressional oversight questions, and they should not be ad- sion on Intelligence Capabilities of the should be a top bipartisan priority in dressed in a partisan fashion. I believe United States Regarding Weapons of the 109th Congress. I believe there will that for the sake of our own national Mass Destruction, the Robb-Silverman be value in putting together a bi- security we must avoid a partisan Commission, issued its report. One of cameral, bipartisan select committee blame game. We should focus on how to the many charges leveled by the com- like the Joint Economic Committee or fix the intelligence community that is mission against the intelligence com- the Joint Committee on Atomic En- still reeling from its public failures and munity, perhaps the most damning, is ergy of the past, to take a hard look at struggling to digest organizational re- the intelligence community collects how Congress should reform itself to forms that we have already enacted. far too little information on many of better perform oversight of our intel- the issues we care about most. ligence. At the same time, Congress must re- As the commission also points out, In my view, the House and the Sen- store its own effective and constructive without information, analysis turns to ate need similar structures to handle oversight over intelligence matters. I guesswork. The state of the affairs in intelligence matters, so that the budg- think a bicameral, bipartisan select our intelligence community is alarm- et requests, legislative referrals and committee could rise above the par- ing, dangerous and frankly unaccept- conferences between the two bodies on tisan and turf tensions that exist, and able. authorizations and appropriations are I urge Leader PELOSI and Speaker Within the span of 2 years, the handled logically and simply and with- HASTERT to strongly consider this op- United States has had two very obvious out disconnection or disfunction. tion as a way to improve the system. and public examples of intelligence How would such a select committee In the final analysis, the intelligence failures. The September 11, 2001 ter- work? Membership could be appointed community, the administration and rorist attacks, and the dead wrong con- by the leadership on both sides from the Congress must work all together to b This symbol represents the time of day during the House proceedings, e.g., b 1407 is 2:07 p.m. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. H3061 . VerDate jul 14 2003 03:51 May 11, 2005 Jkt 039060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 7634 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A10MY7.000 H10PT1 H3062 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE May 10, 2005 ensure that we can meet the intel- ary 4, 2005, the gentleman from Florida freedom and benefits of a democratic ligence challenges we face in the com- (Mr. STEARNS) is recognized during Nation that President Bush is trying to ing years. We must get this right. morning hour debates for 5 minutes. encourage people to reflect on. His f Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, on May scheduled stop in Latvia was a way of 8, 2005, we will mark the 60th anniver- easing his participation into Monday’s RECOGNIZING THE CONTRIBU- sary of the end of World War II. So I anniversary celebration in Moscow’s TIONS OF RAFAEL DIAZ-BALART rise today to honor the men and Red Square. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu- women that did their duty in this war But, of course, a trip like this re- ant to the order of the House of Janu- to comfort the families that lost loved opened old wounds between Moscow ary 4, 2005, the gentleman from Cali- ones. and the Baltic States, which of course fornia (Mr. DREIER) is recognized dur- World War II was truly a world war were absorbed into the Soviet Union in ing morning hour debates for 5 min- conflict, spread across the globe, and it 1940 after the secret Molotov-Ribben- utes. is estimated that some 50 million peo- trop deal between Hitler and Joseph Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, it is with ple died as a result. The impact of the Stalin in 1939. a great deal of sadness that I rise today war was felt everywhere. Men and The agreement provided for Soviet to report to our colleagues of the pass- woman from every walk of life were en- occupation of Estonia, Latvia, part of ing of the father of our two very distin- couraged to do their bit for the war ef- Finland and later Lithuania in return guished colleagues, the gentlemen from fort, and they responded magnificently. for Nazi Germany’s control over most Florida (Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART) and It is hard to imagine the relief and of Poland. As President Bush looked (Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART). joy that those who had lived through back on the history of the Soviet Rafael Diaz-Balart passed away last the war experienced when at last the Friday after a brief illness of about 3 Union, he tried to compare the United war finally ended. Veterans remember States’ past mistakes to that of the So- weeks. And he was one of the most in- ripping the blackout curtains from credible men I ever had the privilege of viet Union. their windows, turning on their lights, President Bush noted that lengthy knowing. and sharing with their family, friends I will say that, as we all know, the and difficult journey for us here in the and neighbors or complete strangers United States for democracy, with our Diaz-Balart family has long been great their joy at hearing the news that the champions of the cause of freedom and own civil war that we struggled war was over. through. As we look to the future, it is democracy in Cuba. And the greatest However, we should remember that essential to remember the past and the champion was the father, Rafael Diaz- for many, the end of the war came over mistakes we made as a Nation, and Balart. a period of months. For those who were other Nations should do the same. He had a very, very distinguished and serving in the Far East and their loved World War II embodies what certain varied career. He served as the major- ones, the war continued long after the mistakes can result in. Sixty years ity leader in the Cuban House of Rep- victory celebrations that are etched in resentatives, during the time of the ago, millions of Europeans were suf- our popular memory.