The New York Times' team of Philip Shenon and Eric Lipton gets the task of reporting on this story under the headline "9/11 Panel Members to Lobby for a Restructured Congress":

Fresh from their role in overhauling the nation's intelligence agencies, members of the independent Sept. 11 commission say they will now lobby to restructure Congress and what the commission described in its final report as the lawmakers' "dysfunctional" oversight of the C.I.A., other spy agencies and the Department of Homeland Security.

The commissioners, who have formed a private group known as the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, say their lobbying effort will begin in earnest next month, when Congress returns from its holiday recess. The lobbying campaign appears to have the support of the White House, which has called for the sort of Congressional restructuring recommended by the commission.

The panel's chairman, Thomas H. Kean, a Republican and former governor of New Jersey, said the commission's 10 members were delighted by the passage this month of a sweeping intelligence overhaul bill that enacted the commission's central recommendation: creation of the job of national intelligence director to oversee the Central Intelligence Agency and other spy agencies.

"But we've still got a ways to go; there are still some things that are very important in our report that have not been implemented," Mr. Kean said, referring to a host of recommendations by the panel for streamlining Congressional oversight of intelligence agencies and the Homeland Security Department. "There has to be more power given to those intelligence committees."

The Commissioners proved quite adept at forcing Congress' hand on the issue of Homeland Security so I have little doubts to their abilities. That having been said, it will be difficult to get Congress to actually begin doing its job. As evidenced by the issues surrounding recent comments by Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and others, Republicans are loathe to allow any action on Intelligence reform. Nevertheless, if the former 9/11 Commissioners continue to do as able a job as they have in the past, Congress might actually begin to get its act together on ensuring the safety of the American people.