Intelligence reform plan to test Collins’ skill

WASHINGTON – While Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has gotten credit for getting the current intelligence reform legislation out of her committee with a unanimous bipartisan vote, some say the true test of her leadership skills will start today when other lawmakers get a crack at it on the Senate floor.

Charlie Mitchell, a former legislator from Maine and now a lobbyist with the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, has worked with Collins and her staff on the civil liberties protections that were put into the bill. “She’s done a fantastic job,” he said of her work on the reforms. But “it’s too early to tell what her legacy is going to be on this bill.”

Mitchell said that’s because this week things will get more complex, as lawmakers with differing interests will weigh in with their own amendments, leading to what one Senate aide predicted will be “a hell of a fight.”

The bill would create a National Intelligence Director with the authority to control most of the country’s 15 intelligence agencies along with authority over how to fund programs. It also would establish a national counter-terrorism center.

“The status quo has been shown to fail us,” Collins said about the 9-11 attacks and why reform was needed.

Maine’s senior senator, Olympia Snowe, said in a written statement Monday that she has long supported the concept of a National Intelligence Director and was still reviewing the details of the legislation.

“I believe that we have moved well beyond the question of whether intelligence reform will happen, to when it will happen and what form it will take,” she said. “As the Senate debates reform legislation this week, I am confident that we are well on our way to making it a reality.”

But to Thomas Goldwasser, a professor of political science at George Washington University, it comes as no surprise that others are not in favor of reform. Any time you consolidate bureaucracy, some individuals inevitably are bound to lose power, he said. “The people inside scream,” Goldwasser said.

Mitchell, the ACLU lobbyist, said numerous competing interests will try to take a swipe at the legislation in the coming days in an effort to weaken it.

He said Collins will face attempts from senators in her own party who may try to attach security measures that could erode civil liberties. He also said Collins’ bill will compete with a House bill that is designed more to score political points than it is to reform the nation’s intelligence capabilities.

But so far, Collins has gotten praise for her bipartisan work, including from Senate Democrats like minority leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. Collins worked over the summer with Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn, at a time when many lawmakers were taking vacation.

If both the House and Senate pass differing versions of the legislation, Collins’ spirit of bipartisanship will again be tested when representatives from both chambers try to reconcile the bills in conference committee.

Collins, who is optimistic the bill will pass, nonetheless stressed that the current political momentum was critical to the bill’s chances of success.