April 16, 2007

Wyden Defends FY'07 Intelligence Authorization Act

Mr. President, this bill has been a long time coming. In the 1970s, members of Congress realized that there was not nearly enough oversight of our nation's spy agencies, and this lack of oversight led to a number of serious abuses. In response to these abuses, the Senate created the Select Committee on Intelligence, on which I am proud to serve. Every year for twenty-nine straight years our committee has produced an Intelligence Authorization bill, and this annual legislation has given Congress a means to exercise oversight of the classified intelligence budget, and provide guidance to the CIA, the NSA, and the various other intelligence agencies. In 2005 and 2006, Congress failed to pass the Intelligence Authorization bills. In my view this is inexcusable. At a time when Americans were questioning our intelligence agencies' ability to keep them safe, Congress failed to provide the necessary support. At a time when the intelligence community was undergoing major reorganization, Congress failed to provide sufficient guidance. At a time when our allies and our own citizens were raising serious questions about our detention policies, Congress failed to conduct oversight. And at a time when Americans were opening their morning papers to read about aggressive new forms of government surveillance -- such as the President's warrantless wiretapping programs - the Congress failed to demand accountability. Now the Committee did report intelligence authorization bills for fiscal years 2006 and 2007, but they were blocked repeatedly by anonymous holds. Regrettably the previous leadership failed to make passing this legislation a top priority. The new leadership of the Senate has decided that ensuring national security and protecting Americans' rights and American values is a major concern, and as a result we are now dealing with this year's Intelligence Authorization Act and it comes in my view to a great extent because of the cooperation of Chairman Rockefeller and Vice Chairman Bond, who has also assisted me on a number of critical areas throughout this session of the senate and for which I am very appreciative.This legislation contains a number of important provisions, Mr. President, which I am proud to have worked on with my colleagues on the Senate Intelligence Committee. It clarifies many of the authorities of the Director of National Intelligence, establishes a new National Space Intelligen ce Center, and creates a strong, independent Inspector General for the intelligence community. It also strengthens congressional oversight by clarifying the Presidents' responsibility to keep the Congress informed of all intelligence activities. In addition, it contains three amendments, Mr. President, that I offered and that I believe will improve the functioning of our intelligence agencies. The first of these amendments would make public the total amount of the national intelligence budget. In my view, it is ridiculous to suggest that Osama bin Laden is going to gain some sort of advantage from knowing that the national intelligence budget is one specific number or another. Declassifying this number would increase in my view public accountability. It would increase public accountability without sacrificing the national security needs of this county and also permit a more informed debate about funding for defense and national security. The second of these amendments -- which I offered with the distinguished chairman of the committee, Senator Rockefeller -- would increase resources to support the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States. After investigating the proposed takeover of the management of several US ports by Dubai Ports World, I became convinced that the process for approving these foreign purchases did not include sufficient due diligence. There ought to be more room in this process for input from the intelligence community, and these additional resources that come about as a result of this amendment that I developed with Chairman Rockefeller would support that.The last of these amendments would increase the maximum criminal penalty for knowingly and intentionally disclosing the identity of a covert agent. Like many Americans, I was shocked and disappointed to learn that members of the Administration exposed the identity of an undercover CIA officer for partisan political purposes. Undercover officers perform a vital and demanding service for the nation, and the very nature of their work prevents them from receiving public praise or recognition. Deliberately exposing an undercover officer for any reason in my view is unacceptable, and to do it for a political purpose is simply reprehensible. This provision will send a message to the men and women of the CIA and other human intelligence services that Congress values them and their work, and takes any threat to them or to their identity very seriously. I would also like to note that the version of this legislation that was reported by the Intelligence Committee also creates a new exemption to the Privacy Act. In the additional views to the committee report, Senator Feingold and I expressed our view that the impact of this provision had not been considered carefully enough. I am pleased that the managers' amendment prepared by Chairman Rockefeller and Vice Chairman Bond removes this provision, and in my view that is going to make our conference with the House of Representatives easier. In sum, Mr. President, I am pleased with the bipartisan work our committee put into this legislation, and I hope that the Senate will support cloture this afternoon. This is extremely important legislation, and it should be passed on a bipartisan basis and should not be subject to a filibuster. Congress has surrendered its national security responsibilities for too long and for too often, and it is time for the Senate to finally stand up and do its job.