Washington ? House lawmakers and senior Pentagon officials expressed misgivings Tuesday about the 9-11 commission’s proposal to create a national intelligence director, saying they feared that such centralization could hinder troops’ quick access to battlefield intelligence.

Amid a deepening debate about the commission’s report, lawmakers and Defense Department officials said during a congressional hearing that they feared a central intelligence office might hang onto data in Washington, or at least slow transmission of the pictures and data that troops need quickly to find their targets.

“Done wrong, it will hoard everything into Washington … and that would be a mistake,” said Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.

The discussion took place during a House Armed Services Committee hearing that brought together the leaders of the 9-11 commission and officials from the Defense Department, which controls more than 80 percent of U.S. intelligence spending. Among the agencies under the Pentagon’s authority are the Defense Intelligence Agency and the intelligence branches of each of the armed services.

While several congressional committees have been considering the commission’s recommendations, the armed services panel is the first to signal skepticism about some of the proposals. The panel and its Senate counterpart will have a major say in any reform legislation.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the committee chairman, has voiced concern about the plan for an intelligence chief, insisting that the committee would not be “steamrollered” into approving such a recommendation. During the hearing Tuesday, Hunter said he had seen no mention in the report of any mistake committed by a Pentagon intelligence agency.

And he asked the leaders of the 9-11 commission whether they were concerned that centralizing operations around a national director could obstruct the military’s access to tactical information in wartime.

“If we give ownership of that satellite to a director rather than (the Pentagon) do you see any problems there?” Hunter asked.

Appearing together, commission chairman Thomas Kean and vice chairman Lee Hamilton told the committee in a joint statement that “it is unimaginable to us that the national intelligence director would not give protection for our forces deployed in the field a high priority.” They insisted that separate management of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon was responsible for many of the intelligence problems uncovered by the panel.

Hamilton, the former chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said the 9-11 panel “did not intend to make any recommendation which would adversely impact the war-fighter. … What we’re trying to do is increase the capability of the intelligence community to identify terrorist threats and to deal with them and to manage them.”