For Immediate Release
August 3, 2007Press Briefing by Scott Stanzel
James S. Brady Briefing Room
12:33 P.M. EDT
MR. STANZEL: Good afternoon, everyone. I don't have anything off the top, so I'll take your questions.
[...]
Q Scott, the legislation the President signed today, given the White House assertion that you've already acted on -- what is it -- 37 or 39 of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations, what was the point?
MR. STANZEL: What was the point in this legislation? We think that it does build upon the efforts that we have had ongoing already. Obviously, you know we've created a Department of Homeland Security, the largest reorganization of our federal government since World War II. We have the Patriot Act. We've significantly reformed our intelligence gathering capabilities. We've created a Director of National Intelligence.
We think that efforts by members of Congress to address our ongoing and evolving security needs are productive. That's why the President, who did have reservations about this legislation -- there were some things in the legislation that we initially objected to, we voiced our concerns about. We were pleased that members of Congress did work with us to address those concerns about things like the intelligence budget, or having the Transportation Security Agency having flexibility in managing their workforce. Those issues were addressed throughout the process, and that's why the President was able to sign it into law today.
Q The impetus for this legislation was the Democrats' feeling that you were not doing enough to protect the homeland, not doing enough to inspect cargo, not doing enough to implement the 9/11 Commission's recommendations. So are you basically conceding their concerns by signing the legislation?
MR. STANZEL: Actually, if we're talking about implementing the provisions of the 9/11 Commission recommendations, they said that the intelligence oversight capabilities of Congress was dysfunctional. And probably one of the most important recommendations they had -- there were a couple separate recommendations -- was for Congress to reform itself and reform its oversight capabilities. We're disappointed that Congress hasn't done that yet. We have moved forward, as you said, on 37 of the 39 recommendations. There are a couple outstanding that we take a different approach upon, because they deal with disclosure of intelligence budget issues. We don't think that's the right approach. But we think we have made significant progress towards implementing those recommendations.
Q And one final note. Congressman Hamilton says even with this legislation, you will only achieve roughly 80 percent of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations. Why the disparity?
MR. STANZEL: I don't know what he's specifically referring to, but certainly two of the big ones that are outstanding is Congress's reform of itself, which it has neglected to do until this point.
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END 12:52 P.M. EDT
