Don't ask, Don't tell
Congress gives short shrift to its intelligence oversight duties
Perhaps unsurprisingly, many in the CIA and elsewhere are quick to praise the appropriations panels, which tend to be much more friendly toward the agencies. "My dealings with appropriators were always productive," says Pavitt. "These were people who listened." The reason for this, say some in Congress, is that the intelligence committees are the only ones that have at least tried to force reforms on the CIA. "We actually conduct oversight and criticize and realign resources, and the appropriators don't do that," contends a senior congressional source. "They just give them what they want."
Battles. After 9/11, with more work being done in public, the intelligence committees have also become more partisan. Since the mid-1990s, the professional staffs have been increasingly divided--either officially or unofficially--into Democratic and Republican staffers. They briefly united to produce a well-regarded joint inquiry into 9/11. But when the Senate Intelligence Committee began investigating the CIA's prewar Iraq intelligence, Republicans ensured that the first bipartisan report did not scrutinize how the White House interpreted the CIA's work. On the House side, Democrats worked on a similar report but were unable to persuade Republicans to join them--and may soon release their findings unilaterally.
Overcoming turf battles in Congress seems to many like a nearly insurmountable task. Take homeland security, for example, where some 88 committees and subcommittees claim a role in oversight. The 9/11 commission has recommended strengthening the intelligence committees by giving them the power to both approve the budget and appropriate the money, as well as creating new subcommittees to tackle crucial tasks. And there are some signs of movement on reform. The Senate has formed a working group to address possible changes in oversight. But in a sign of just how much turf is at stake, the group has some 22 members--nearly a quarter of the Senate.
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