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Inside Politics

White House forms task force to study 9/11 findings

Bush orders members to report back 'promptly'


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CNN's Kelli Arena looks at the 9/11 commissioners' recommendations.

CNN's John King looks at what went wrong leading up to 9/11.

Thomas Kean, 9/11 commission chairman, makes his opening statement on the report.
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    September 11, 2001

    WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One day after the 9/11 commission released its report, the White House said President Bush has formed a task force to review its recommendations and report back to him "promptly."

    The news came hours after top House and Senate lawmakers pledged on Friday to begin hearings on the report in August.

    Bush has tapped his chief of staff, Andrew Card, to head up the task force, a White House official at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas said.

    The panel will include officials from Homeland Security, as well as national security and other high-level administration officials.

    National security adviser Condoleezza Rice will travel to Crawford on Monday to meet with Bush and "continue to discuss the recommendations," the official in Texas said.

    The independent National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States released its findings Thursday in a 570-page report.

    Congress established the bipartisan panel to investigate events before, during and immediately after the attacks.

    House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, both Republicans, praised the 9/11 commission's work and promised that the House of Representatives would "immediately assess everything we have done in this regard since 9/11 and everything more we need to do."

    "We have therefore directed our appropriate committees to examine the commission's recommendations, begin hearings in August, and report back to us with recommendations for specific legislation in September including specific proposals we will consider before Congress adjourns," the two said in a joint statement.

    The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee also plans to begin hearings on the report and its recommendations in August, according to Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, chairwoman of the committee, and Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat and panel member.

    The two said they hope to have a bill drafted by October 1 addressing the reforms suggested by the independent commission.

    "Because of the urgency of this task, we will begin work right away," Collins said. She and Lieberman said they will focus on recommendations to reorganize the executive branch of government.

    The first recommendations to be addressed will be those dealing with creating a national counterterrorism center and establishing the position of national intelligence director, Collins said.

    "I believe by focusing on those two overriding recommendations that we can, in fact, produce legislation as requested by our leaders," she said.

    A third priority, Lieberman said, is to reorganize congressional oversight.

    The Senate Republican and Democratic leaders, Sens. Bill Frist of Tennessee and Tom Daschle of South Dakota, asked Collins and Lieberman to evaluate the 9/11 report's recommendations and produce legislation.

    "We're going to do this on a nonpartisan basis, just as the [9/11] commission itself acted on a nonpartisan basis," Lieberman said. "The matter of national security, protecting the American people from terrorist attack, obviously transcends any partisan considerations."

    CNN's Dana Bash and Suzanne Malveaux contributed to this report.


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