Collin Peterson: “H.R. 10 is not the best bill that this body could produce. H.R. 10, as introduced, included a curious provision in Title…”

“H.R. 10 is not the best bill that this body could produce. H.R. 10, as introduced, included a curious provision in Title V, section 5021 of the bill would give the President the authority to draft a completely new intelligence reform bill and submit it to Congress for only an up or down vote with no ability to amend. Now, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the committee with the expertise and jurisdiction on restructuring the intelligence community, voted on a bipartisan basis to strike this provision. But the Committee on Rules overruled the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and left section 5021 in the bill before us today. This provision would create the same mess that we already have when we are dealing with Trade Promotion Authority, a situation where the Congress has almost no say in what the administration does in our trade agreements. Why would we want to set up another system like that? It would undermine Congress' ability for effective oversight of our intelligence operations, and that is clearly not the right thing to do. In addition, I do not understand why the House Republican leadership is ignoring the President's endorsement of the Senate's bill and so much of what the 9/11 Commission recommended. Their approach is not going to help us get to where we need to go on this bill and get done in a constructive and timely manner.”