Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. will be at a greater risk of a terrorist attack if Congress further delays legislation to reorganize the nation's intelligence services, said Thomas Kean, chairman of the commission that recommended the overhaul.

``We know there is another attack coming,'' Kean, head of the Sept. 11 Commission, said in an interview on NBC News' ``Meet the Press.'' ``This bill will pass. The question is whether it will pass now or after a second attack.''

Kean, 69, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, and Lee Hamilton, 73, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana who is the commission's vice-chair, urged President George W. Bush to press Congress to enact the bill, which establishes a new national intelligence director. ``The president has got to go to work,'' Kean said.

Two Republican members of the House who've blocked the overhaul legislation gave no sign they'll compromise when House- Senate consultations on the bill resume Dec. 6. The Senate passed a version of the bill by a 96-2 vote last month.

``There's a fundamental difference'' between the House and Senate bills, said Representative Duncan Hunter, a Californian who chairs the House Armed Services Committee. ``I'm in favor of waiting a little bit,'' said Representative James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee.

Hunter, appearing on ``Fox News Sunday,'' said the legislation compromises the Pentagon's control over satellite information vital to troops in the field. Sensenbrenner, on ``This Week With George Stephanopoulos'' on ABC, said the bill fails to tighten restrictions on driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.

Delays `Risk Lives'

The legislation would create a national intelligence director with authority over all the nation's spy agencies, many of which are controlled by the Pentagon and funded through it.

Kean and Hamilton said that failure to enact the legislation when lawmakers reconvene next week threatens to delay passage until the middle of 2005 because of the time it takes for a new Congress to get organized.

``So it's six months when none of these things will happen: not better security at the borders, not more help for local people, nothing, nothing,'' Kean said. ``And I don't think we can wait that long. And I think it does, in essence, risk lives.''

Senator Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican who is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Cable News Network's ``Late Edition'' that the Bush administration would ``have to speak with one voice'' on the bill after lawmakers cited Pentagon concerns in voicing opposition to the bill. Bush will have to increase the pressure ``sooner or later,'' Roberts said.

Battlefield Intelligence

The legislation is intended to reorganize the 15 U.S. intelligence agencies as recommended by Kean and Hamilton's commission. The panel investigated the failure of U.S. spy agencies to detect plotting for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which killed almost 3,000 people. Bush endorsed the commission's findings and the legislation, which House Republicans blocked in a conference committee Nov. 20.

Hunter contends the new structure would cut the Pentagon's ``chain of command and control'' over battlefield intelligence generated by satellites.

``We have to maintain the tight, close-knit relationship'' between this intelligence and ``forces in the field,'' he said. The satellites are ``the eyes and ears of the warfighters.''

Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, the chief Senate negotiator on the bill, said the three agencies controlling the satellites ``would remain in the Pentagon as they are today.''

The only difference is that the Central Intelligence Agency and other intelligence agencies would share the information, she said on ``Fox News Sunday.''

``It's inconceivable to me that the commander-in-chief supports a bill that undermines intelligence to our troops,'' she said.

Immigration

Collins lamented the continuing resistance. ``The president supports the bill, the 9/11 Commission supports the bill, a majority in both houses of Congress support this bill,'' she said. ``If it comes to a vote it will pass.''

Sensenbrenner said he wants to the legislation to assure that controls over the issuance of drivers' licenses in all 50 states are strict enough to keep them out of the hands of terrorists.

Efforts to pass the bill ``ran aground'' on this issue, said Senator Joseph Lieberman, the ranking Democrat on the Government Affairs Committee who sits also on Armed Services Committee.

``The immigration reforms are important, but they can wait,'' said Lieberman, who appeared on ``This Week'' with Sensenbrenner. ``The president wants this (legislation) as commander-in-chief in the middle of a war.''

To contact the reporters on this story: --Michael Forsythe in Washington mforsythe@bloomberg.net --Bill Schmick in Washington wschmick@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 28, 2004 17:43 EST