Jon Kyl: “I rise today to discuss this body's efforts to reform the U.S. intelligence community. My distinguished colleagues from…”

“I rise today to discuss this body's efforts to reform the U.S. intelligence community. My distinguished colleagues from Maine and Connecticut have worked hard to develop legislation to address some of the executive branch structural reforms recommended by the 9/11 Commission. To be sure, there is a need to change, the way we do business if we are to effectively battle terrorist organizations, like al-Qaida, and protect the American people from another devastating terrorist attack. But I believe that many provisions of the bill before us are tackling the problem from the wrong angle. I think it is important that we move forward with deliberate speed. Past efforts, like the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, should set an example. That overhaul of the Defense Department took several years from start to finish. It was a huge undertaking, as is our current effort to reform the intelligence community. The 9/11 Commission did a good job of cataloguing and critiquing the failures of 9/11--I believe it spent some 18 months on that effort. But it spent far less time developing the recommendations to solve the problems. We are now acting on those recommendations over a period of less than 2 weeks on the Senate floor. It is important to ask whether, in the middle of a war, it is wise to attempt such a fundamental reorganization with a deadline of October 8 for Senate consideration, a conference and then adoption of a conference report.”