Under the House intelligence reform bill, which Hunter helped draft, the center director was not a presidential appointee but, similar to the president's approach, was named by the new director of national intelligence.
Hunter is also concerned that under the compromise bill the CIA becomes a virtual independent agency, supervised by the director of national intelligence but not controlled or directed by him. Instead, the CIA director remains a presidential appointee who is confirmed by the Senate and "reports" to the director of national intelligence "regarding the activities" of his agency.
 
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As noted by intelligence specialists in one congressional analysis of the compromise bill, the measure's language "introduces a degree of uncertainty into the relationship of the Director of Central intelligence and the DNI."
Another perceived weakness is that unlike in the present arrangement, in which the CIA director has a direct role in approving covert operations, the director of national intelligence will not. The congressional experts see this as creating a situation in which the president may "come to rely more on the CIA director for daily intelligence and operational issues."
The Hill experts also see the role of director of national intelligence diminishing because of the center director's direct access to the president on terrorism, which they describe as "the primary issue affecting the U.S. government today."
Overall they ask: "Why will the president consult the director of national intelligence? Will this limit his ability to effectively manage the intelligence community?"
One compromise agreed to by the Senate was to modify a provision that would have prohibited the director of national intelligence from being housed in any building with an existing intelligence agency, in particular CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., renamed in the 1990s as the George H.W. Bush Intelligence Center.
Goss has already begun clearing out space on the seventh floor of the main Langley building for additional staff either for a director of national intelligence, should the bill pass, or for additional staff for himself as DCI with new budget authority.
Recognizing that the president may want to keep his top intelligence adviser in the building named for his father, the senators agreed to modify the legislation to say the director of national intelligence would have to move to a separate headquarters, but not until October 1, 2008, three months before Bush's term ends.
