Pelosi faces pressure to end standoff over intelligence bill

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/109683-pelosi-faces-pressure-to-end-standoff-over-intelligence

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is under increasing pressure to end her standoff with the White House on Congressional oversight of the intelligence community.

The Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday formally filed a revised intelligence authorization bill after approving it last week in an impromptu meeting held off the Senate floor.

That move demonstrates Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) resolve to deliver an intelligence authorization bill to the president’s desk for the first time in five years.

Pelosi has been in talks with the Obama administration to allow Congress to have stronger oversight of the intelligence community, but has refused to name a conference committee for the authorization bill, a move that needs to take place so the measure can move to the House and Senate floors for final passage.

Feinstein had stood firm with Pelosi for weeks and was refusing to schedule a nomination hearing for James Clapper, Obama’s nominee for national intelligence director. Last week, however, Feinstein shifted her stance and set a hearing on Tuesday for Clapper after deciding she could not risk delaying Clapper’s nomination any longer because the acting national intelligence director, David Gompert, will be leaving after August regardless of whether the Senate approves a new director by then.

(...)