The 567-page September 11 commission report released this morning criticized congressional oversight in the intelligence community and recommended restructuring committees to handle homeland security. Congress will be unlikely to consider any major changes this year due to limited time and committee chairmen reluctant to give up their authority. The final report, released after a 20-month investigation, calls for a new Cabinet-level intelligence chief with more budget and operational authority, an idea which has been debated but gone nowhere.

It also recommends that both houses create permanent homeland security committees with exclusive jurisdiction over domestic security. Currently, the House’s committee is a select panel due to expire at the end of this Congress while the Senate has no homeland security committee. This would be an improvement for Christopher Cox (R-California), the chairman of the House’s select committee, who hopes having principal authority over homeland security will eliminate the battles his panel has had since its inception 18 months ago preventing any of its major legislation from reaching the floor.

The commission recommends either creating a joint House-Senate intelligence committee or strengthening the intelligence committees in each chamber. One way to strengthen the committees is to give them authority over intelligence agency appropriations, which currently falls under the annual defense spending bill.

A controversial recommendation from the committee addresses abolishing term limits for the intelligence committee members. Those who support this recommendation argue that longer terms on the committee would allow members to gain crucial experience and institutional knowledge. Many oppose this recommendation, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California), who believes turnover is good for the committee to avoid conflict and get new perspectives. In May the Senate added a provision to abolish the 8-year limit to the fiscal 2005 intelligence authorization (S 2386), which should go to the floor after Labor Day.