Statement on Congressional Responsibility – Archive

Statement on Congressional Responsibility

November 18, 2004

The 108th Congress is poised to adjourn, leaving unfinished business. The intelligence reform bill is the most important legislation of this session. Recent news stories confirm that the intelligence community is in frightening disarray and yet members of Congress may head home without completing an intelligence reform bill based on the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. If that happens, it means members of Congress have shamefully abdicated their responsibility to the citizens who elected them.

We therefore call upon the following leaders of the House and Senate to extend this lame duck session until this critical intelligence reform legislation has been enacted: Speaker Dennis Hastert, House Majority Leader Tom Delay, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle.

The eleventh hour is at hand and so we also call upon President Bush to intervene to break the deadlock in these contentious negotiations. His leadership is URGENTLY needed.