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By Root 631 0

Congress has been whether to reveal some aspects of the intelligence budget. Article I, Section 9, paragraph 7 of the Constitution requires that accounts of all public money be published “from time to time.” This phrase is vague, which allowed each successive administration to argue that its refusal to disclose the details of intelligence spending was permissible. Critics contended that this interpretation vitiated the constitutional requirement to publish some account at some point. Most advocates of publication were not asking for a detailed publication of the entire budget but wanted to know at least the total spent on intelligence annually. (See box, “lntelligence Budget Disrlosure: Top or Bottom?”)

The argument over publishing some part of intelligence spending came to a head in 1997, when DCI George Tenet revealed that overall intelligence spending for fiscal 1998 was $26.6 billion. He provided the number in response to a Freedom of Information Act suit, acting to end the suit and to limit the information that the intelligence community revealed. Tenet later refused to divulge the amount requested or appropriated for fiscal 1999, arguing that to do so would harm national security interests and intelligence sources and methods. Various attempts to make publishing the overall intelligence budget mandatory failed over disagreements between the House and Senate until July 2007, when Congress passed a requirement to do so as part of a bill implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. The law required the DNI to disclose the aggregate amount appropriated in the National Intelligence Program (NIP), beginning one month after the end of fiscal year 2007, meaning October 30, 2007. On that date the DNI’s office released the aggregate appropriation for the NIP for fiscal year 2007 ($43.5 billion). The DNI’s statement added that no additional budget data would be released, including specific breakdowns by agency or by program, as these disclosures would harm national security. The law requiring the disclosures allows the president, beginning with fiscal year 2009 (October 1, 2008), to delay or waive release of the NIP figure if the president informs the intelligence committees that disclosure would damage national security. Thus, the debate over disclosing the intelligence budget may still be where it was after Tenet’s data release. Thus, it is instructive to review the arguments that both sides raise in the debate. Proponents of disclosure cite, first and foremost, the constitutional requirement for publication. They also argue that disclosure of this one number poses no threat to national security, because it reveals nothing about spending choices within the intelligence community.

Proponents of continued secrecy tend not to cite the “time to time” language of the Constitution, which is a weak argument at best. Instead, they argue that Congress is privy to the information and acts on behalf of the public. They also say that disclosure of the overall amount could be the beginning of demands for more detailed disclosure. Noting how little this one number reveals (and implicitly accepting their opponents’ argument that its disclosure would not jeopardize security), they contend that the initial disclosure would inexorably lead to pressure for more detailed disclosures about specific agency budgets or programs and that these disclosures would have security implications.

DCI Tenet’s disclosure revealed that many public estimates of the size of the intelligence budget were fairly accurate, as was the estimate that the intelligence budget is roughly one tenth the size of the defense budget. As disclosure proponents had long argued, national security did not unravel. However, as disclosure opponents maintained, many who had advocated disclosure were dissatisfied because the figure provided so little information.

Disclosing the overall number entails political risks for U.S. intelligence. Relating spending to outputs is more difficult for intelligence than it is for virtually any other government activity. How much intelligence