Crs Report for Congress - Congressional Oversight of Intelligence: Current Structure and Alternatives: February 15, 2007 - Rl32525 (Paperback)

Interest in congressional oversight of intelligence has risen again in 2007, in part because of the House Democratic majority's pledge to enact the remaining recommendations from the U.S. National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, commonly known as the 9/11 Commission. Its conclusions in 2004 set the stage for reconsideration of the problems affecting Congress's structure in this area. The commission's unanimous report, covering a wide range of issues, concluded that congressional oversight of intelligence was "dysfunctional" and proposed two distinct solutions. These were, (1) creation of a joint committee on intelligence (JCI), modeled after the defunct Joint Committee on Atomic Energy (JCAE), with authority to report legislation to each chamber; or (2) enhanced status and power for the existing select committees on intelligence, by making them standing committees and granting both authorization and appropriations authority. Congress's interest in a joint committee on intelligence dates to 1948 and the early years of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Director of Central Intelligence (DCI). Similar recommendations have arisen in the meantime, although the lion's share were made before separate intelligence committees were established in the House (1977) and Senate (1976). The numerous proposals for a joint committee on intelligence, ...