After 9/11 intelligence failures, pre-war intelligence failures on Iraq, and revelations about intelligence officials conducting legally-dubious spying on Americans, Congress was going to be more diligent in its oversight. At least that was the plan.
In reality, lawmakers are not only failing to be more rigorous, they’re not even reading intelligence bills before voting on them.
Nearly all members of the House of Representatives opted out of a chance to read this year’s classified intelligence bill, and then voted on secret provisions they knew almost nothing about.
The bill, which passed by 327 to 96 in April, authorized the Bush administration’s plans for fighting the war on terrorism. Many members say they faced an untenable choice: Either consent to a review process so secretive that they could never mention anything about it in House debates, under the threat of prosecution, or vote on classified provisions they knew nothing about.
Most chose to know nothing.
This wasn’t an isolated incident. The Boston Globe found that most members of the House concede that they “typically don’t read the classified parts of intelligence bills.” The result is a situation in which most lawmakers don’t know the operations they’re approving, and have no idea what the operations are going to cost.
It’s not entirely Congress’ fault. Lawmakers are flying blind because the Bush administration leaves them little choice.
The trick of it is, the administration decides what lawmakers can know, and lawmakers aren’t allowed to challenge or question it. What’s more, if they have a problem with an intelligence-related proposal, lawmakers aren’t even permitted to talk about it.
The rules make open debate on intelligence policy and funding nearly impossible, lawmakers say. While members of Congress said they understood the need for some secrecy, many complained that the administration stamped as “classified” information that should be subject to public debate.
“We ought to be doing a better job of oversight, [but] if you’re not going to be able to question it or challenge it, that makes it difficult,” said Representative Walter Jones , a North Carolina Republican.
The failure of individual members to read the bills or attend briefings puts a far greater onus on the House and Senate intelligence committees’ reviews of secret programs.
But committee members in both parties say the administration gives them too little information, and sometimes waits until a program is about to be leaked before sharing it with the panels.
“Is the administration giving us everything we want or need? Of course not,” said Representative William “Mac” Thornberry , Republican of Texas and chairman of the oversight subcommittee of the House Intelligence Committee, echoing complaints by fellow lawmakers.
The result is a legislative dynamic in which most members of Congress, quite literally, have no idea what they’re voting on when it comes to intelligence legislation. “In the Eastern religion of Taoism they say that those who speak do not know, and those who know do not speak. That sort of characterizes the situation we face,” said Steven Aftergood , director of the Project on Government Secrecy of the Federation of American Scientists.
Congress can just trust the Bush administration to do the right thing, right?