Intelligence_ From Secrets to Policy - Mark M. Lowenthal [165]
At first blush, the disadvantages are more apparent than the advantages. Intelligence is, for most members, a distraction from their other duties and from those issues likely to be of greatest interest to their constituents. Few districts have a direct interest in intelligence. The main ones are those in the immediate Washington, D.C., area, where the major agencies are located, and those districts where major collection systems are manufactured. But these are a small fraction of the 435 House districts in the fifty states.
Once involved in intelligence issues, members cannot discuss much of what they are doing or what they have accomplished. Co-option is also a danger. Should something go wrong in intelligence, committee members will be asked why they did not know about it in advance. If they did know in advance, they will be asked why they did not do something about it. If they did not know, they will be asked why not. These are all difficult questions to answer.
Finally, the intelligence budget is remarkably free of pork, that is, projects to benefit a member’s district or state that are earmarked for funding. Therefore, members on the committees have few opportunities to help their constituents.
With all of those disadvantages, why serve? Because some advantages accrue from membership. First, service on the intelligence committees allows members to perform public service within Congress, to serve on a committee where they have few, if any, direct interests. Second, their service gives members a rare opportunity to have access to a closed and often interesting body of information. Third, it gives members a role in shaping intelligence policy and, because of the relatively small size of the two committees (in the 110th Congress—2007-2009—twenty members on the House Intelligence Committee and fifteen on the Senate Intelligence Committee), perhaps a greater role than they would have on many of the other, larger oversight committees. Fourth, it may offer opportunities for national press coverage on high-profile issues about which few people are conversant. Fifth, because members of the two intelligence committees are selected by the majority and minority leadership of the House and Senate, being chosen is a sign of favor that can be important to a member’s career. (Select committees usually have limited life spans, especially in the House. The House Intelligence Committee is called “permanent select” to denote its continued existence, even though it remains “select.”)
There are also some different sensitivities involved in selecting members for the intelligence committees because of the issues they oversee. The party leadership in both Houses wants to be sure that members are selected who will not only take their oversight role seriously and will be careful not to disclose classified information but who reflect that Congress is a serious steward when it handles intelligence. This sensitivity became apparent in late 2006, as Nancy Pelosi, D.-Calif., who would be the Speaker of the House in the 110th Congress in January 2007, considered who to select as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. The ranking Democrat on the committee was Rep. Jane Harman, D.-Calif., with whom Pelosi had had a strained relationship. If Pelosi by-passed Harman, next in line was Rep. Alcee Hastings, D.-Fla. Pelosi found herself caught between the fact that Hastings is an African American, an important constituency in the Democratic caucus and party, and also the fact that Hastings had been impeached by the House in 1988 (when it was controlled by Democrats) and removed from office by the Democratically controlled Senate the following year because of alleged bribery. (Pelosi had been among the 413 representatives who voted to impeach Hastings.