The Senate defeated by 70-28 a measure by Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd that would have required President George W. Bush to gain additional congressional approval, in three stages over 13 months, as 22 federal agencies are transferred to the new Cabinet agency.
Opponents to the congressional oversight amendment said it would unduly delay implementing a department urgently needed to protect Americans inside U.S. borders.
"There would be no assurance in the end that anything would be transferred to the new department," said Lieberman, chief sponsor of the Democratic Homeland Security bill. "It would indefinitely remain a bare-bones department."
Byrd, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and fierce guardian of congressional prerogatives, said Congress will be ceding too much of its oversight power to the president as the department is set up.
"Over the next 13 months, Congress will walk away entirely," Byrd said.
As the Senate wrestled with these amendments, negotiations continued behind the scenes to resolve the difficult problem of worker rights within the 170,000-employee Homeland Security Department.
Bush has threatened to veto the Senate Democratic bill because it does not include Bush's demands for greater ability to hire, fire and deploy the workers to meet terrorist threats. Republicans also say the bill would hamper Bush's power to exempt agency workers from union bargaining agreements for reasons of national security.
Later Tuesday, the Senate was set to vote on an amendment by Sens. Joseph Lieberman and John McCain to establish a 10-member independent commission appointed by Congress to broadly examine the events that led to the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The House in July approved a panel limited to investigating intelligence issues.
The commission idea gained a boost with last week's reversal by the Bush administration, which had opposed an independent panel but is now endorsing it.
The Senate-created commission's probe would be much broader than the House version, with authorization to look into the roles of law enforcement, commercial aviation, U.S. diplomacy, border control and immigration in addition to intelligence. An initial report would be due within six months, with a final report and recommendations to prevent future attacks planned within a year.
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