WASHINGTON -- House leaders on Wednesday promised to overhaul the nation's fractured intelligence community before going home to campaign for re-election, while Senate leaders unveiled an intelligence reorganization plan they plan to have approved before the end of the month. Senators plan to start voting on final language next week that would create a national intelligence director with spending authority over much of the nonmilitary intelligence agencies, with a target date of Sept. 27 for final Senate passage.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, plans to have her committee vote next week on final legislation to create the national intelligence director. She and Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, the panel's ranking Democrat, announced a plan, similar to the recommendation of the 9/11 commission, to create a strong national intelligence director with spending power over the agencies the person would control.