WASHINGTON – Thursday’s edition of The Hill, a publication that covers Congress, had a front page story claiming a major rift between Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., and Christopher “Kit” Bond, R-Mo., respectively the chairman and vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Most importantly, the story said that the White House was bypassing Bush on the current FISA bill, instead talking to committee Democrats.

But Rockefeller’s and Bond’s people deny that the story is accurate.

So do the White House and the intelligence community.

From the director of national intelligence, this statement: “Contrary to a report in today’s “The Hill” newspaper, neither the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), nor his Staff, has been or currently is negotiating with the House Majority or the Senate Majority on FISA modernization.  The DNI has been on travel for nearly two weeks. The DNI was consulted on and supports the proposal forwarded to Majority Leader Hoyer by Senator Bond two weeks ago.”

And from the White House: “As many of you know, the White House has steadfastly declined to comment on discussions taking place in Congress regarding FISA legislation.  In the interest of achieving legislation that meets the needs of the Intelligence Community, we believe it is best to allow House and Senate leaders to work through potential areas of agreement that will result in successful legislation, and to avoid having Administration officials commenting on every rumor or report of the discussions.

“However, an article published today in The Hill newspaper quotes assertions by Democrats regarding the nature of the White House’s communications with Congress on these discussions and deserves a response.  At every step of the way throughout the Congressional discussions, the White House has coordinated with Senator Bond and other Republican members…The recent compromise offer on FISA legislation was crafted by Senator Bond and Republican members.  Anyone who has been following this issue knows that Senator Bond has been leading the discussions with the House for months.  The assertions in the article are simply inaccurate.

“The White House continues to believe that the best FISA modernization legislation is the bipartisan Senate bill that resulted from the cooperative efforts of Chairman Rockefeller and Senator Bond, and we still believe that the best outcome would be for Congress to pass this bill and send it to the President.”