Jousting Over the Senate Intelligence Committee
“I am increasingly concerned that the Senate Intelligence Committee is unable to carry out its critically important oversight and threat assessment responsibilities due to stifling partisanship that is exhibited through repeated calls by Democrats on the committee to conduct politically-motivated investigations,” wrote Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in a March 3 letter (pdf) to Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid.
“I agree with Senator Frist,” Sen. Reid replied, “the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee has been bogged down by partisanship.”
“When faced with strong evidence that the Bush Administration has misused intelligence…, time and again the Senate Intelligence Committee has ducked its responsibilities and refused to hold the Administration accountable. The recent record of the Republican-controlled committee is most notable for its abdication of authority and responsibility,” Sen. Reid said.
The Senate Intelligence Committee is scheduled to vote on March 7 on a proposal by Senator Rockefeller to conduct an investigation of the NSA warrantless surveillance activity. An investigation is favored by Democrats and some Republicans, but opposed by the Republican leadership.
The bootcamp brought more than two dozen next-generation open-source practitioners from across the United States to Washington DC, where they participated in interactive modules, group discussions, and hands-on sleuthing.
Fourteen teams from ten U.S. states have been selected as the Stage 2 awardees in the Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC), a national competition that helps communities turn emerging research into ready-to-implement solutions.
The Fix Our Forests Act provides an opportunity to speed up the planning and implementation of wildfire risk reduction projects on federal lands while expanding collaborative tools to bring more partners into this vital work.
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