[JURIST] US President George W. Bush issued an executive order [text and materials] on Thursday which gives the country's Director of National Intelligence [official website] the authority to coordinate information sharing between different US and foreign intelligence services, a duty previously held by the Central Intelligence Agency [official website]. The Director will also be authorized to make funding decisions for the various US agencies. White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said in a statement that the order would implement reforms authorized by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 [PDF text] and create a more unified national intelligence-gathering network, but members of the House Intelligence Committee protested [press release] the substantial changes being without their consultation. VOA has more. AP has additional coverage.

The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which implemented a series of intelligence reforms [JURIST report] recommended by the 9/11 Commission [official website], authorized the broadest re-working of the US intelligence structure since President Harry Truman signed the National Security Act [text] in 1947.