Intel oversight

Improving Congress's oversight of the intelligence community

The federal government spent more than $70 billion last year on the Intelligence Community. Are these dollars well spent? Hard to tell. With the pervasive secrecy surrounding its operations, it is difficult to determine the extent to which the money was spent protecting our national security or invading our privacy.

The reality is that we must look to Congress for the answer—a Congress whose intelligence oversight budget is a pittance, and whose intelligence committees are so disjointed that the 9/11 Commission called for wholesale reform. As the first branch of government, Congress is responsible for legislation and oversight, powers that have been largely relinquished to an over-powerful and under-responsive Executive Branch.