Beilenson’s Intelligence Role to End : Politics: Rule won’t be changed to let California Democrat remain as chairman of House panel.

WASHINGTON —  Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson’s two-year reign as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee will come quietly to an end as a result of Speaker Tom Foley’s decision not to change a House rule that would extend the Los Angeles Democrat’s term on the sensitive panel.

Beilenson, an opponent of U.S. covert aid to rebels in Afghanistan, Angola and Cambodia, is expected to be replaced next week as chairman of the committee by a lawmaker who supports the assistance programs. House sources said Rep. Dave McCurdy (D-Okla.) will be named to replace Beilenson as chairman of the panel, known as the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

McCurdy ranked second behind Beilenson in seniority among Democrats on the committee, and is considered one of the strongest Democratic proponents of the controversial covert assistance programs.

A spokesman for Foley said the decision had nothing to do with Beilenson’s performance or with a desire by Foley to see the committee move in a different direction.

Beilenson, a liberal, 14-year House veteran who held the committee chairmanship for the last two years, had joined two predecessors in seeking to have the six-year limit on House committee terms raised to eight years.

House rules were waived last year to extend Beilenson’s tenure to seven years so he could be chairman for a second year. But the proposed eight-year term has not been approved.

The 19-member panel oversees funding for the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and other intelligence-related activities of the federal government.

“New members are utterly unfamiliar with the whole arcane business of the committee when they come in,” said Beilenson, defending the proposed term limit extension.

“No matter how hard-working and intelligent a member may be, it takes you three to four years before things fall into place, you understand how the intelligence community functions, you know who to believe and how you should manage things,” he said.

Despite overtures by former committee Chairman Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.) and Louis D. Stokes (D-Ohio) as well as Beilenson, House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) declined to seek a rules change last month. The terms of committee members Matthew F. McHugh (D-N.Y.), Robert A. Roe (D-N.J.) and Bernard J. Dwyer (D-N.J.) also expired at the end of the 101st Congress.

“That’s a highly sought-after committee and it would have affected other members if the term limit had been extended,” a spokesman for Foley said. “The Speaker not only has great affection but great respect for Beilenson, and he thought he did a marvelous job as chairman.”

Beilenson, who met regularly with President Bush and his senior foreign policy advisers, was among those who urged the Administration to abandon plans to funnel covert funds to the opposition candidates who defeated the Sandinistas in the Nicaragua elections last year.

Beilenson also supported efforts to slash aid to anti-Communist rebels in Afghanistan, Angola and Cambodia and to end secrecy.

The Administration, however, said the programs should remain secret to avoid embarrassment to the aid recipients and to countries through which the aid is funneled.