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August
2004
Welcome
to the August edition of my Washington Report. I hope this
newsletter keeps you informed about some of the important
matters facing our State, our Nation, and the U.S. Senate.
In
this edition, I'll be addressing several of the major issues
that have been in the news lately, including:
- The
9/11 Commission Report
- My
petition to expand embryonic stem cell research
- Assault
weapons ban to expire September 13
- Restoration
of San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds begins
If
you have any comments or questions on these or any other
issues, please don't hesitate to let me know. I also welcome
your feedback on this newsletter and suggestions about ways
in which I can better communicate with my constituents.
Please
send any comments you have through my website.
Best
wishes,
U.S.
Senator Dianne Feinstein
The
9/11 Commission Report
 The
9/11 Commission report released on July 23 described a dramatic
lack of imagination within our government regarding the
terrorist threats that we faced as a nation prior to 9/11.
Our leaders and analysts failed to envision the full scope
of what a host of prior terrorist events meant for the security
of the United States. While the report holds neither President
Clinton nor President Bush responsible for failing to prevent
the 9/11 attacks, it does clearly point to a real failure
to connect the dots that might have led to a revelation
of the 9/11 plot. The
report detailed an intelligence community that "is
not organized well for joint intelligence work....The structures
are too complex and too secret."
On
July 9, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a separate
report on the intelligence failures leading up to the war
in Iraq. As did the 9/11 Commission, my fellow members of
the Intelligence Committee and I found an intelligence community
in disarray. Now, we must come up with solutions to prevent
future attacks and future intelligence failures. The Commission
released a set of recommendations to help us do both.
One
of the recommendations is to create a new position of Director
of National Intelligence, an idea I have been championing
for more than two years. I am also pleased that President
Bush has expressed his support for the idea, giving us increased
momentum to move forward on this important reform recommended
by both the 9/11 Commission and the earlier House-Senate
Inquiry into the 9/11 attacks. As we proceed with this legislation,
I will work to ensure that a Director of National Intelligence
has the statutory, budgetary, and personnel authority to
be a truly effective leader of our intelligence community.
To
view my recent statements regarding the 9/11 Commission's
report and my legislation to create a Director of National
Intelligence, please go to: Statement
by U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein - On the Report by the
9/11 Commission (7/22/04)
Statement
of Senator Feinstein on Legislation to Create a Director
of National Intelligence (7/20/04)
My
petition to expand embryonic stem cell research
 Embryonic
stem cell research has the potential to help more than 100
million Americans who have deadly and disabling illnesses
such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's,
multiple sclerosis, as well as spinal cord injury and many
others.
Unfortunately, Federal funding for embryonic stem cell research
has been restricted to lines that were already derived as
of August 9, 2001.
Three
years later, only 19 stem cell lines are currently available
to researchers, down from the 78 that were initially thought
to be available. We must open up more embryonic stem cell
lines if this vital research is to reach its potential.
This critical research is supported by 40 Nobel Laureates,
142 patients' groups, academic institutions, scientists
and caregivers and 264 members of Congress. And we would
like your support, too. Please sign my petition to allow
for more embryonic stem cell lines.
To
sign the petition, please go to: Support
Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Assault
weapons ban to expire September 13
 Unless
Congress and the President act soon, AK-47s, TEC-DC9s, Street
Sweepers, Uzis and 15 other military-style assault weapons
will be available at your local gun shop starting September
14. The assault weapons ban is set to expire after ten years
of blocking the manufacture and sale of 19 assault weapons
and dozens of others automatic and semiautomatic weapons
with certain characteristics, thus reducing the number of
these weapons on the streets of our cities. In fact, the
proportion of banned assault weapons traced to crimes has
dropped by 65.8% since 1995, according to the Justice Department.
If
you want to help keep these extremely dangerous weapons
off the streets, now is the time to act. Although President
Bush claims to support the assault weapons ban, he has failed
to do anything to push for its renewal. The day these dangerous
weapons return to our streets is rapidly approaching. Please
let the President, your Representative, House Speaker Dennis
Hastert (R-Ill.), and Senate Majority Leader Bill
Frist (R-Tenn.) know how you feel about this important
issue.
To
find out more about how you can urge Congress to renew the
assault weapons ban, please go to: Help
Support the Assault Weapons Ban
Restoration
of San Francisco Bay salt ponds begins
 With
90 percent of the original tidal marshes in the San Francisco
Bay gone, the Bay's wetlands are a far cry from what they
were only a century ago. On July 19, however, one of the
largest wetlands restoration projects in U.S. history -
the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project - began to change
that.
I
am thrilled that this project to restore natural tidal flows
to 16,500 acres of salt ponds around the San Francisco Bay
is under way. Thanks to an outstanding public-private partnership,
the Bay will be restored to a mosaic of functioning wetland
habitats, managed cooperatively for wildlife, flood management
and wildlife-oriented recreation by the California Department
of Fish and Game and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
I was very pleased to negotiate this partnership between
the Cargill Corporation and the State and Federal government
and I
hope that the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project will
become a model for future restoration efforts across the
nation, especially in highly populated urban areas.
To
learn more about this wetlands restoration project, please
go to: South
Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project
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