A resolution amending Senate Resolution 400, 94th Congress, and Senate Resolution 445, 108th Congress, to improve congressional oversight of the intelligence activities of the United States, to provide a strong, stable, and capable congressional committee structure to provide the intelligence community appropriate oversight, support, and leadership, and to implement a key recommendation of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.

Mr. President, I am introducing today, along with Senators Burr, Bayh, Snowe and McCain, a resolution that will implement a key recommendation of the 9/11 Commission--

the granting of appropriations authority to the Senate Intelligence Committee. This effort to reform and improve congressional oversight has a long bipartisan history. It began as an amendment offered by Senator McCain to the 2004 reorganizing resolution that accompanied the intelligence reform bill. And, in the last Congress, this resolution was introduced by Senator Burr. It should also be noted that it has the same bipartisan set of cosponsors as it did last year, despite the change of administration. This underscores the principle that effective congressional oversight is neither a partisan nor political issue and that it has nothing to do with who the President is. It is about ensuring that the Intelligence Community is keeping America safe, complying with the Constitution and laws of our country, and using taxpayer dollars in an appropriate manner.

Next month will mark the 5th anniversary of the release of the 9/11 Commission's report. The country is by now familiar with the many recommendations of the Commission that have been implemented, including the establishment of the DNI and the National Counterterrorism Center. Yet, the Commission stressed that, ``Of all our recommendations, strengthening congressional oversight may be among the most difficult and important.''

In November 2007, Lee Hamilton, the former Vice Chairman of the Commission testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee on behalf of himself and former Chairman Tom Kean and again emphasized what needs to be done. He testified that:

The single most important step to strengthen the power of

the intelligence committees is to give them the power of the

purse. Without it, they will be marginalized. The

intelligence community will not ignore you, but they will

work around you. In a crunch, they will go to the

Appropriations Committee. Within the Congress, the two bodies

with the jurisdiction, time and expertise to carry out a

careful review of the budget and activities of the

Intelligence Community are the Senate and House intelligence

committees. Yet all of us have to live by the Gold Rule: That

is, he who controls the Gold makes the Rules.

The testimony of the former Chairman and Vice Chairman highlighted three practical examples of why this particular reform is so critical. First, if and when the U.S. goes to war, the decision will ride largely on intelligence--and oversight is critical to ensuring that the intelligence community gets it right. Second, oversight is necessary to safeguard the privacy and civil liberties of Americans in an age of enhanced collection capabilities and data mining. Third, the success of intelligence reform requires sustained congressional oversight.

Vigorous, effective, independent congressional oversight is fundamental to the checks and balances of our constitutional system. In recent years, we have seen outright contempt for this oversight, particularly as the previous administration sought to hide the CIA's detention and interrogation and the NSA's warrantless wiretapping programs from Congress. But the inauguration of a new president has not removed all impediments to effective oversight, nor is it a guarantee that serious abuses won't occur in the future. That is why the implementation of this reform is just as important as ever and why this resolution has bipartisan support.

In the end, this reform is not just about our constitutional system, as important as that is. It is about how best to protect the American people. As Lee Hamilton testified, ``the strong point simply is that the Senate of the U.S. and the House of the U.S. is not doing its job. And because you are not doing the job, the country is not as safe as it ought to be, because one of my premises is that robust oversight is necessary for a stronger intelligence community.''

The implementation of this reform is long overdue. It has been more than seven and a half years since the attacks of 9/11, almost 5years since the 9/11 Commission made this recommendation, and a year and a half since the Senate Intelligence Committee heard directly from former Chairman Hamilton and former Vice Chairman Kean. There should be no more excuses, or delays.