Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., center, shakes hands with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., right, on Capitol Hill yesterday during a news conference where Sept. 11 commission co-chairman Thomas Kean, left, endorsed a bipartisan plan by the Senators to make all of their recommendations on improving homeland security into law. Click photo for larger image.

WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan group of lawmakers is trying to push through Congress all 41 of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations before the Nov. 2 election, hoping to keep them from becoming ensnared in partisan politics.

The bill, introduced almost three years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, contains two major proposals: establishment of a national intelligence authority as an independent agency outside the White House, with a strong director and "real budget authority;" and creation of a national counterterrorism center to "pull together the missions" of the various intelligence agencies in the federal government.

But prospects for quick passage are, at best, uncertain given President Bush's wariness about granting as much authority to a new post of national intelligence director as the commission argued is needed. Moreover, Democrats may balk at handing the White House such a major coup as a genuine intelligence-sector reform would provide.

While backers say they will start work on the measure quickly, it will be up to House and Senate Republican leaders to decide whether the bill gets a fast track to passage or is sidelined into hearing.

Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., are the two major sponsors of the "McCain-Lieberman 9/11 Commission Report Implementation Act."

Standing shoulder to shoulder with them on Capitol Hill yesterday were the commission's chairman, former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, a Republican, and co-chairman, former Indiana Rep. Lee Hamilton, a Democrat. Their bipartisan panel this summer declared in its final report that the U.S. intelligence-gathering apparatus is in disarray and needs to be overhauled.

Also joining McCain and Lieberman were Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Evan Bayh, D-Ind. In the House, the same bill will be introduced by Reps. Chris Shays, R-Conn., and Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y.

"We're going to be working real hard to see all of it implemented," Shays said. "But, obviously, it's going to be a give-and-take in the House. I believe that we're going to get a lot of this done. You are going to have many members who will not want to leave, to go back to their districts, until we get this job done."

In the Senate, the Governmental Affairs Committee has jurisdiction over reforming the intelligence sector, and Lieberman said that with the help of its chairman, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, some of the commission's recommendations could be ready as a measure for Senate consideration by Sept. 27.

But Collins said she strongly disagreed with some specific commission proposals, including one that would deny certain states a portion of the homeland security anti-terrorism money they now get so that other states considered at greater risk could receive more.

Specter said he hoped that there wouldn't be any stalling. "In my opinion, there's no doubt that, had all the facts been centralized -- the famous Phoenix FBI report, the terrorists in Kuala Lumpur [who were] known to the CIA, [but] not reported to the [Immigration and Naturalization Service], and Zacarias Moussaoui and many other strands -- that 9/11 could have been prevented.

"A number of proposals had been pending since that time, but the momentum was not there until the 9/11 Commission came forward," Specter said. "And I agree with my colleagues that the momentum is now there."

The fact that various congressional committees have already held 16 hearings to consider how to reorganize the government in the wake of the domestic terror assault shows that Congress has an unwieldy role in planning what to do, McCain said. He conceded that some lawmakers will need to cede their cherished oversight over various federal intelligence entities if the reforms are to succeed.

Kean said it was a "dream," after months of his commission's work, to hear avowals of bipartisan cooperation to act on its report. The commission had feared that it might just be issuing another report doomed to gather dust on a shelf, he said.

Besides authorizing a powerful new intelligence czar, the bill would reconstitute a broader information-sharing network, set up a system to screen people entering into the United States, make it more difficult to obtain fraudulent driver's licenses and birth certificates, better screen for explosives on airplanes, prioritize risks in the nation's transportation system, institutionalize better ways to protect American civil liberties, increase aid to Afghanistan, strengthen the U.S. commitment to Pakistan and "open new avenues of dialogue, diplomacy and development with the Muslim world."

McCain said the bill had the strong endorsement of the families of 9/11 victims, most of whom have embraced the commission's report. He said executive orders that Bush recently announced to implement some changes to the intelligence system were insufficient.