House Speaker OKs 9/11 Panel Extension
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By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - House Speaker Dennis Hastert agreed Friday to give the independent panel investigating the Sept. 11 attacks more time to finish its work, clearing the way for Congress to formally approve a two-month extension.
Reuters
Slideshow: September 11
Hastert's decision to reverse his previous objections to the extension also defused a separate crisis that threatened to shut down highway programs and part of the Transportation Department.
Al Felzenberg, a spokesman for the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, said the panel was pleased that Congress was working to give it more time.
"We can now move forward with confidence that we'll be able to write the definitive account of the events of 9-11," he said.
Hastert, R-Ill., in a letter to the two chairmen of the commission, former New Jersey Republican Gov. Thomas H. Kean and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., acknowledged he had been "reluctant to support this extension" because of the need for Congress to move quickly on the findings of the report.
Hastert is to meet the two chairmen next Tuesday to discuss the future of the commission.
President Bush (news - web sites) supports the extension and the Senate earlier Friday passed on a voice vote a Senate Intelligence Committee bill including the two-month extension.
But without a guarantee that the House would act by next week on that bill, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Joe Lieberman (news - web sites), D-Conn., held up a vote on a highway bill needed to prevent the furlough Monday of some 5,000 federal workers and a cutoff of highway money.
They lifted that hold after being informed that Kean and Hamilton were satisfied they would get the extension they requested.
Under current law, the commission, created by Congress to study the nation's preparedness for and response to the Sept. 11 attacks, was to file its final report by May 27 and close down by July 26.
The commission and its supporters wanted a two-month extension of both dates, but met resistance among House GOP leaders, partly out of concerns that a final report would get entangled with presidential election politics.
Under a compromise, the panel is to get another 60 days to work on its report and 30 extra days to wrap up its work, McCain said.
Kristen Breitweiser of New Jersey, whose husband, Ronald, died in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, said the extended time to finish operations was important. "I'm concerned that by not having the wrap-up time to lobby and testify as to their recommendations, the whole point of the investigation is not going to be brought to fruition to institute change," she said.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush aides had been in contact with Hastert's office throughout the week to make the president's support for an extension clear. Hastert informed the White House of his change of heart before he announced it.
"We are pleased that everybody seems to support an extension," McClellan said.
"We don't live in ordinary times," Lieberman said earlier in explaining why they were using the highway bill as leverage to get the commission extension. The inconvenience of the temporary disruption of highway programs would "pale in significance to not giving the commission the extra time it needs," he said.
McCain and Lieberman said the extension was needed because the administration has not fully cooperated with the commission.
McClellan said the White House has provided more than 2 million pages of documents to the panel and is "cooperating closely and in an unprecedented way." He said President Bush plans to meet privately with commission leaders and supports the two-month extension.
Held hostage was a highway bill that would also extend for two months the federal highway and public transit bill, which is set to expire Sunday.
Without passage, nearly 5,000 Transportation Department workers would be furloughed on Monday, Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said.
After the agreement on the commission, the Senate quickly agreed to the two-month extension of the highway bill, needed to give the House and Senate time to work on a new six-year spending plan for highways and mass transit.
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Associated Press reporters Leslie Miller and Hope Yen contributed to this report. |
