Washington -- Relatives of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks appealed to Congress on Tuesday to quickly pass legislation revamping the nation's intelligence establishment, but without provisions supported by House Republican leaders that would expand law enforcement powers and could spur opposition to the bill.
But Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas insisted the House will proceed with the GOP-backed bill, which goes beyond the Sept. 11 commission's bipartisan recommendations by including such proposals as requiring the detention of terrorist suspects, broadening the definition of "material support'' for terrorist groups, and making it harder for immigrants to succeed with asylum claims and easier to deport noncitizens suspected in terror cases.
While leaders of the Family Steering Committee for the 9-11 Commission said they might support some of those ideas, they said the provisions shouldn't be part of the intelligence reform effort.
"Legislation should be unencumbered by language or amendments containing extraneous provisions or extending or expanding the Patriot Act. The latter, in particular, deserves separate debate,'' said a statement from the committee, whose leaders have attended hundreds of hours of hearings in Congress and before the Sept. 11 commission.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/09/29/MNG5B90I361.DTL
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