Politics

Bush Vows to Fight For Intelligence Bill

WASHINGTON -- President Bush said Sunday that he was "disappointed" at Congress' failure to pass a bill to restructure U.S. intelligence agencies. At a news conference ending a summit in Chile, Bush said he had pressed lawmakers to approve the legislation and would try again after Thanksgiving. The bill to create a powerful national intelligence director was championed by the independent commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks and outlined widespread failures of intelligence-gathering. But a political power struggle developed over a proposal to give the new director full authority over the $40 billion intelligence budget, now largely controlled by the Pentagon. Posted by Editor at November 22, 2004 07:38 AM