Joint Chiefs head OK with intelligence bill

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard B. Myers, said Thursday that his public concerns about a sweeping intelligence overhaul bill had been resolved in the final version of the legislation, a remark that appeared to undercut a group of House Republicans who had cited the general's opposition in blocking a final vote.

Myers' remarks came as the bill's supporters on Capitol Hill offered new optimism over its prospects and said President Bush appeared to be ready to mount a strong last-minute lobbying campaign to pressure wavering House Republicans to approve the bill when members of Congress return to Washington next week for a brief meeting.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the chief Senate architect of the bill, said, "I am basing my optimism on the incredibly persuasive powers of the president of the United States, the commander in chief, who wants this legislation."

The compromise bill, which was hammered out by a House-Senate conference committee last month and has been endorsed by Bush, would enact the major recommendations of the independent Sept. 11 commission and establish the Cabinet-level job of national intelligence director to oversee the CIA and the government's other spy agencies.

Senate aides said Collins received a call on Thursday from Karl Rove, Bush's chief political adviser, to say that the president considered passage of the bill to be a priority during the lame-duck session of Congress scheduled for next week, despite continuing reports of Pentagon opposition.

Although Myers' comments at a meeting with several reporters were cryptic and he declined to offer an endorsement of the overall intelligence bill, he said that a series of concerns he had raised in a highly publicized letter to the House in October had been worked out "satisfactorily."

"The issue that I specifically addressed in a letter to Chairman Hunter has been accommodated," he said, referring to Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and the bill's leading critic in the House.

In the Oct. 21 letter, which was released to reporters, Myers offered his support to Hunter and other House Republicans wanting to limit the budget powers of a national intelligence director. Hunter and his allies want the Pentagon to retain direct control over billions of dollars in spending by three spy agencies that operate within the Defense Department but have many civilian clients: the National Security Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.