For Rep. Sylvestre Reyes of El Paso, Texas, his first seven months as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee have been an eye-opener. Not because of the global secrets he’s learned. Because of the politics.
“I was under the illusion that, by doing the right common sense things, I could work and I could influence that committee to work in a bipartisan way to do what’s best because it’s what’s best for the country,” said the 62-year-old former border patrolman.
“The reality is that politics unfortunately trumps everything else,” he said. As a result, he added, “I still am committed to work in a bipartisan condition, but without the rose-colored glasses.”
One issue that precipitated Reyes’ disillusionment is the question of how best to revise the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a major governmental tool in spying on terrorists with the potential to attack the United States.
For months, Reyes and other top congressional Democrats say they worked quietly with the administration on its request for three urgent updates in the 29-year-old law. But then the administration and its GOP allies forced them to accept a more sweeping grant of authority by leveling public accusations that failure to act promptly would undermine national security.
The measure expires in six months, so the entire battle will have to be re-fought this fall.
A 26-year veteran of the Border Patrol, Reyes became chief patrol agent in El Paso in 1993 and started a program that cut the flow of illegal entrants from Mexico by more than half. Then he won a seat in Congress.
Now a senior member of the Armed Services and Intelligence Committees, he was Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s compromise choice to chair the latter panel after she bypassed two more senior members.
Reyes said he went out of his way to ensure that “all of the members on both sides of the aisle got an opportunity to fully engage and fully express and fully participate,” taking more time on the annual intelligence authorization bill than the panel traditionally took.
But he said his Republican counterpart, Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, failed to reciprocate in both trivial and more serious ways. He said the Michigan Republican barred GOP staff members from a staff “thank you” session after the panel finished the intelligence authorization bill, but more important, he took the FISA issue public by “bashing us on the House floor.”
Hoekstra said Reyes called the staff session “unilaterally” without notifying him, adding that made his staff “very uncomfortable.” As for taking the issue to the House floor, Hoekstra insists, “It’s not partisanship, it’s philosophical differences.” He said Republicans had sought more comprehensive authority for months and acted when Reyes said he planned no action until fall.
“Being blind on al-Qaida was unacceptable to me and to the administration,” Hoekstra said. “A majority said it needed to be done now and it was done now.”
The Bush administration and congressional Republicans have had trouble accepting the Democratic capture of the House and Senate, Reyes said.
For the past six years, he added, “We’ve had a Congress that’s been way too accommodating. You’ve got an energy policy? Give it to us and we’ll pass it. You’ve got a war that you want to prosecute, by going into a country with preemptive policy? We’ll support it. Oh, you didn’t plan on body armor and you didn’t plan on enough armored Humvees? OK, you need a supplemental? We’ll give you the supplemental. You need another one? Here’s another, that’s why we’re in the mess we’re in today.”
On FISA, he said, “There is frustration on the part of the Republicans that we’re not rubber-stamping this thing through.”
Reyes expressed doubt Congress can force President Bush to end the war in Iraq.
“Fundamentally, it’s going to take a change in administrations,” he said. “The new administration, whatever the new administration is, has to have as a priority to go to our allies and say, ‘Help us with this situation.'”
Carl P. Leubsdorf is Washington bureau chief of The Dallas Morning News.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
