Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he’s ready to fly from Iowa back to Washington, D.C. at midday today if a vote’s called on a national security bill. House Republicans are expected to back the intelligence reform bill now that the House Armed Services chairman has dropped objections. Another House chairman says the bill should also address immigration issues. A similar intelligence reform bill already passed the Senate, where Grassley, a republican, voted for it. Grassley says “It’s embarrassingly clear to all of us that we did not have, prior to the decision of invading Iraq, adequate intelligence.” Grassley says the nation’s military officials and diplomats can’t do their jobs without better data with intelligence gathered from satellites and from people on the ground. “The overhaul is necessary,” Grassley says, and the vote may come as soon as this afternoon.Some families of Nine-Eleven victims on Monday presented congressional leaders with a petition calling for intelligence reforms.
