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Ironically, this committee was eliminated in the 1970s as Congress was
undertaking the next most important reform of oversight in response to the
Church and Pike investigations into abuses of power. In 1977, the House and
Senate created select committees to exercise oversight of the executive
branch's conduct of intelligence operations.
The Intelligence Committees
The House and Senate select committees on intelligence share some impor-
tant characteristics.They have limited authorities.They do not have exclusive
authority over intelligence agencies.Appropriations are ultimately determined
by the Appropriations committees. The Armed Services committees exercise
jurisdiction over the intelligence agencies within the Department of Defense
(and, in the case of the Senate, over the Central Intelligence Agency). One con-
sequence is that the rise and fall of intelligence budgets are tied directly to
trends in defense spending.
The president is required by law to ensure the congressional Intelligence
committees are kept fully and currently informed of the intelligence activities
of the United States.The committees allow the CIA to some extent to with-
hold information in order to protect sources, methods, and operations.The CIA
must bring presidentially authorized covert action Findings and Memoranda
of Notification to the Intelligence committees, and it must detail its failures.
The committees conduct their most important work in closed hearings or
briefings in which security over classified material can be maintained.
Members of the Intelligence committees serve for a limited time, a restric-
tion imposed by each chamber. Many members believe these limits prevent
committee members from developing the necessary expertise to conduct effec-
tive oversight.
Secrecy, while necessary, can also harm oversight.The overall budget of the
intelligence community is classified, as are most of its activities.Thus, the Intel-
ligence committees cannot take advantage of democracy's best oversight
mechanism: public disclosure. This makes them significantly different from
other congressional oversight committees, which are often spurred into action
by the work of investigative journalists and watchdog organizations.
Adjusting to the Post­Cold War Era
The unexpected and rapid end of the Cold War in 1991 created trauma in the
foreign policy and national security community both in and out of govern-
ment.While some criticized the intelligence community for failing to forecast
the collapse of the Soviet Union (and used this argument to propose drastic
cuts in intelligence agencies), most recognized that the good news of being
relieved of the substantial burden of maintaining a security structure to meet
the Soviet challenge was accompanied by the bad news of increased insecurity.
In many directions, the community faced threats and intelligence challenges
that it was largely unprepared to meet.
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