Bob Kerrey: “the bill the Senate is now considering, S. 1745, the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 1997, raises…”

“the bill the Senate is now considering, S. 1745, the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 1997, raises many issues essential to our national security. None are more important, however, than the Intelligence Committee's amendments regarding renewal and reform of the Nation's intelligence apparatus, intended to enable that apparatus to respond effectively to the security threats of today and tomorrow. The amendments under consideration were added to the bill when the Select Committee on Intelligence considered it on sequential referral. All of these amendments have been accepted by the Senate Armed Services Committee during the course of negotiations between our two committees regarding the intelligence provisions in S. 1745 and in S. 1718, the Intelligence Authorization Act for fiscal year 1997. I would like to make special mention of the Intelligence Committee's proposed amendments to the provisions of S. 1745 relating to the new National Imagery and Mapping Agency, or NIMA. NIMA would be created by consolidating nearly a dozen agencies or offices within the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency, including the Defense Mapping Agency, the Central Imagery Office, CIA's National Photographic Interpretation Center, into a single agency within the Department of Defense.”