Intelligence_ From Secrets to Policy - Mark M. Lowenthal [158]
INVESTIGATIONS AND REPORTS. One of Congress’s functions is to investigate, which it may do on virtually any issue. The modern intelligence oversight system evolved from the congressional investigations of intelligence in the 1970s. Investigations tend to result in reports that summarize findings and offer recommendations for change, thus serving as effective tools in exposing shortcomings or abuses and in helping craft new policy directions. Every year the two intelligence committees report publicly on issues that have come before them. These reports may be brief because of security concerns, but they assure the rest of Congress and the public that effective oversight is being carried out, and they create policy documents that the executive must consider.
just as the executive branch has come to rely more on outside commissions for intelligence issues, Congress has increasingly created investigations of its own. After the September 11 attacks. Congress conducted a joint inquiry, which consisted of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. The Senate committee also undertook a long study of intelligence on Iraqi WMD. The dynamics of these investigations are different from those created in the executive. First, by definition, Congress is a partisan place, made up of a party that supports the president on most issues and one that opposes the president. This can always affect an investigation. Second, Congress has some responsibility for the performance of intelligence by virtue of its control of the budget and its oversight. Thus. Congress’s ability to be objective about its own role comes into question.
Each ot these levers—hearings, reports, QFRs, CDAs, investigations—are part of the larger struggle over information that is central both to oversight and to friction between Congress and the executive. Essentially, Congress needs and wants information and the executive wants to limit the information that it provides, especially information that may not be supportive of preferred executive-branch policies. As with so much else, beyond barebones agreements on information that must be shared (budget justifications, treaty texts, background information on nominees), the remainder falls into a gray zone of debate. Therefore, struggles over information are constant in the oversight relationship. For example, in the 109th and 110th Congresses (2005-2008), issues related to policies to combat terrorism have been regular information battlegrounds. Members of Congress have sought information (usually internal administration papers) on wiretapping and interrogation techniques. These struggles for information become especially important when the issue at hand is vague or may be breaking new ground, perhaps apart from legislation, as has been the case in these two issues. Congress can issue subpoenas, but both branches usually seek to avoid taking the matter to court, in part because this involves yet a third branch of government in the decision. Congress can also deny funding or hold up action of legislation or nominees.
HOSTAGES. If the executive branch balks on some issue, Congress may seek means of forcing it to agree. One way is to take hostages—that is, to withhold action on issues that are important to the executive until the desired action is taken. This type of behavior is not unique to Congress; intelligence agencies use it as a bargaining tactic in formulating national intelligence estimates (NIEs) and other interagency products.
During the debate on the INF Treaty, the demands of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence for new imagery satellites was one case of hostage taking. In 1993 Congress threatened to withhold action on the intelligence authorization bill until the CIA provided information on a Clinton administration DOD nominee,