House passes law enforcement information-sharing bill

The House on Wednesday passed a bill that would permit federal law enforcement authorities to share information about potential terrorist attacks with state and local authorities.

Passed by a vote of 422-2, the bill, H.R. 4598, would require the president to promulgate guidelines for sharing classified and sensitive intelligence information, as well as information obtained through wiretaps or grand-jury investigations.

House Intelligence Terrorism and Homeland Security Subcommittee Chairman and bill sponsor Saxby Chambliss, R-Calif., said the measure seeks to get information about "potential acts of terrorism declassified and redirected to people on the front lines."

"We do a great job of getting information," he said, as he acknowledged weaknesses within the CIA and FBI. "But we don't do a great job of sharing information."

Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., added that a key impetus for the bill came when New York City officials learned information about a threat from Time magazine rather than from FBI officials. He called the bill an attempt to rationalize existing laws that currently bar federal agents from communicating sensitive and classified information with local police.

"This is an effort to empower local officials upon whose real estate future attacks may occur," said Jane Harman, ranking Democrat of Intelligence subcommittee. "Homeland security is a bottom-up problem and not a top-down problem. It is not about the best arrangement of deck chairs but about getting the 'first responders' the information they need."

In a policy statement, the Bush administration expressed support for the goals of the legislation, saying that it "seeks to balance and reconcile the needs of state and local personnel to have access to timely and relevant homeland security information to combat terrorism, with the need to protect and safeguard both classified and sensitive but unclassified information."

Although the bill would require the president to decide upon procedures for sharing information within a year, it would empower him to set them. Among the options it suggests include: boosting the number of security clearances, deploying non-disclosure agreements or increasing the use of joint terrorism task forces with the FBI.

But the policy statement also raised two specific concerns: that the definition of "homeland security information" includes census information "that has been collected solely for statistical purposes under a pledge of confidentiality," and that provisions regarding the dissemination of foreign intelligence information could limit the administration's flexibility under the anti-terrorism law Congress passed in October.

Several members of the House Judiciary Committee raised privacy concerns about the bill but said they were largely satisfied by amendments adopted in committee.

"For public-safety information, we need to be able to communicate what is known," said Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va. "But it must be limited just to those who need it, and is not spread around on the Internet where everyone can see it."

Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Texas, said the law needs to ensure that information from whistleblowers is shared, but she withdrew her amendment to make such a change on the floor.