Assoicated Press
House and Senate negotiators yesterday refused to give ground on a compromise on the September 11 commission's terror-fighting recommendations. The White House and victims' families appealed for a deal.
Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the Michigan Republican who as chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is in charge of the negotiations, acknowledged that three straight days of meetings among aides to key lawmakers have proved fruitless.
The public session yesterday, the first involving the negotiators since the House and Senate passed different versions, produced no movement.
The National Commission of Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States urged Congress to create a national intelligence director to oversee 15 military and nonmilitary intelligence agencies. The hope was that such a step would prevent terrorist attacks such as the 2001 hijackings that killed about 3,000 people in New York, Northern Virginia and Pennsylvania.
But the House and Senate voted to maintain the current wall between military and nonmilitary intelligence operations, even while building some bridges over them.
The commission also called for more safeguards, including national standards for driver's licenses and other identification, improved "no-fly" and other terrorist watch lists, and greater use of biometric identifiers to screen travelers at ports and borders.
House Democrats have joined Senate negotiators in supporting the Senate version. The Senate bill omits measures included in the House version that would tighten border security and give law-enforcement agencies new authority to fight illegal immigration and identify theft.