By Irene Tsikitas, NationalJournal.com
© National Journal Group Inc.
Friday, Dec. 1, 2006

In her first public appearance since Democratic House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi tapped Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, [CongressDaily subscribers only] to chair the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, current ranking member Jane Harman, D-Calif., told a group from the American Bar Association Friday that she planned to "continue to make my views known, I hope, in a constructive way" and retain a position of authority on security issues.

Harman said Pelosi called her earlier this morning to inform her about the decision to grant Reyes the chairmanship. "I'm very pleased that my successor is Silvestre Reyes, a man I've worked with closely," Harman told ABA's standing committee on law and national security at an event in Washington. John Hess, Harman's chief of staff, said that Pelosi knocked Harman off the committee without explanation.

	The 9/11 panel recommendations aren't "a Chinese takeout menu," Harman said. "You have to do all of them."

Pelosi's decision to promote Reyes, the third-ranked Democrat on the committee, over first-in-line Harman has widely been considered a personal one. It has been reported that the two Californians do not get along, and Harman has garnered criticism from liberals during her tenure on the committee for her support of the war in Iraq and an alleged unwillingness to challenge the Bush administration's intelligence policies.

Harman expressed confidence that she would still be able to have a significant impact in Congress despite her ouster from the intelligence committee. She pointed out that she would be returning to her previous post on the Energy and Commerce Committee and would remain on the Homeland Security Committee, both of which deal with security issues.

Also in her remarks, Harman stressed that she advocates the implementation of all 41 recommendations of the 9/11 commission, a midterm campaign promise that Democratic leaders reportedly plan to forego by declining to reorganize congressional oversight and budgeting processes. "This isn't a Chinese takeout menu -- the 41 recommendations. You have to do all of them," Harman said, quoting a family member of a 9/11 victim.

"Congress cannot exert its power as an independent branch of government and impose the checks and balances necessary on the executive unless we reorganize," she continued.

Two changes Harman pledged to push for in the coming session were the abolition of term limits for House committee members (currently only chair and co-chair posts are permanent) and the creation of an "integrated intelligence budget," which she said would allocate funds according to specific intelligence activities and missions instead of taking an agency-by-agency approach.

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