Dem & Rep Senators Say Bush Weakened Fight on Terror Funds

Senators Say Bush Weakened Fight on Terror Funds
Mon Mar 29, 2004 04:46 PM ET
By Jackie Frank

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two influential senators accused the administration on Monday of weakening the government's ability to clamp down on terrorism financing and urged President Bush to create a central agency to focus on it.

The Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Charles Grassley of Iowa, and the panel's senior Democrat, Max Baucus of Montana, said the creation of the Homeland Security department after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks had left a gap in the ability to fight financial crimes related to terrorism.

"This same restructuring has disassembled and scattered the government's apparatus to detect, investigate and prevent financial crimes," they wrote in a joint letter to Bush.

The senators pointed to a lack of resources, direction and coordination and duplication of effort among the multiple agencies in Treasury, Homeland Security and other departments that now collect intelligence on financial crimes.

"While we struggle over how to restructure our agencies, they're squirreling away money to fund their attacks. Shutting down terrorism financing must be an urgent and high priority," Grassley said in a statement.

The senators recommended fundamental reform in the federal system of combating terrorism financing and asked the administration for input on the creation of a coordinated financial crimes enforcement agency at Treasury.

"There must be one hand at the helm empowered to deny terror of its currency," Grassley and Baucus wrote.

Last year, Treasury eliminated the post of undersecretary for enforcement after most of its law enforcement functions -- including the Secret Service and the U.S. Customs Service -- were transferred to the Department of Homeland Security. It also lost its post as head of a National Security Council committee that coordinates federal agencies' efforts to stop terrorism financing.

Treasury's new Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence will be headed by an undersecretary and will include two assistant secretaries.

"The restructuring seems to be heavy on generals and light on soldiers," the senators said.