Jay Rockefeller: “I am pleased to be here at long last to speak in support of the National Security Intelligence Reform Act. After 5…”

“I am pleased to be here at long last to speak in support of the National Security Intelligence Reform Act. After 5 months of endless work, led by Chairman Collins and Senator Lieberman, we are poised to achieve what people thought was impossible. Some have criticized this legislation for being too hastily conceived or rushed to completion. To the contrary, this reform has been 50 years in the making and the issues have been the subject of 46 different commission reports. Most of them have suggested the same kinds of things we are doing here. Now, under the extraordinary leadership coming from Senator Susan Collins and Senator Joe Lieberman, our Nation will soon have a Director of National Intelligence who can begin to effectively coordinate our intelligence agencies for the first time since the creation of the National Security Act of 1947. This critical reform was first suggested during the Nixon administration and was the central recommendation not only of the 9/11 Commission, but also the joint inquiry--not so well known in this body--that was conducted by both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, working together over a period of 2 years ago.”