President Bush has nominated John Negroponte, the current U.S. ambassador to Iraq, as the first director of national intelligence. Bush said that Negroponte would be his principal adviser on intelligence issues and would have authority over the budgets of the 15 U.S. intelligence agencies. Negroponte also will have the authority to order the collection of new intelligence and information sharing between agencies. The intelligence overhaul bill that Bush signed into law in December created the new position.