Who Stalled the Intelligence Bill?

For what could become the third year in a row, the Senate on Tuesday evening did not pass an Intelligence Authorization Bill, over the objection of a lone Republican senator whose name is being protected by his colleagues.

John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, called the delay "one of the more embarrassing efforts I have been associated with in my 24 years in this body." The panel's vice chairman, Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.), took the Senate floor Tuesday and called on "any person who has a hold on this bill to come forward and find out what is in the bill."

Rockefeller and Bond have been working over several months to meet objections to items in the bill that the committee passed last May. With changes that Rockefeller and Bond worked out, the measure was reintroduced Jan. 27 and put on the unanimous consent calendar on Feb. 8.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, was named by Congressional Quarterly yesterday as the member who put the bill on hold. A DeMint spokesman said the senator's office "does not comment on holds," but other congressional sources said that DeMint was the one.

Those sources said that they believe the hold is due to White House objections to specific provisions, including public disclosure of the national intelligence budget; a requirement for a report on secret CIA prisons; and response to information requests by the committee chairman and vice chairman within 30 days.

"We have to be able to pass authorization bills if we are to have an impact on the intelligence community," Bond said.

-- Walter Pincus