Climate study holds up spy bill

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House Democrats will allow Republicans to try and strip a global-warming study from a bill setting intelligence policy, a key panel decided last night, hours after top retired military officials lauded Democratic efforts to link climate change with national security.

House Republicans are gearing up for a floor showdown on the topic today because most Democrats insist the intelligence bill should keep a provision ordering a National Intelligence Estimate that would evaluate climate change as a security risk.

"This is an area that we may be vulnerable in terms of potential terrorists," said Rep. Silvestre Reyes, Texas Democrat and chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

"You mean a terrorist could impact global climate change?" asked Rep. David Dreier of California, the ranking Republican on the Rules Committee.

"We don't know," Mr. Reyes responded, prompting Mr. Dreier to snap sarcastically: "Wow. That's amazing."

After this exchange, the Rules panel met late into the night and was slated to approve the terms of debate, including a limitation of Republican amendments allowed to the Intelligence Authorization Act, which will be considered on the floor today.

The Washington Times, on its Web site, first reported last Thursday about the provision in the bill to draft a National Intelligence Estimate -- a formal and authoritative report done by a broad section of the intelligence community -- on the "anticipated geopolitical effects of global climate change."

Well after midnight, after hours of negotiations on an unrelated Iraq spending bill, the Democrat-controlled Rules Committee approved a rule setting the framework for today's debate.

The rule will allow for 7 amendments, including one authored by Intelligence panel ranking Republican Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, to pull the provision about climate change from the bill.

Democrats after a hearing yesterday seemed like they would block the amendment.