ACCESSION
NUMBER:328024
FILE ID:POL205
DATE:02/22/94
TITLE:CONGRESSIONAL REPORT, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22 (02/22/94)
TEXT:*94022205.POL
CONGRESSIONAL REPORT, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22
(Intelligence budget) (300)
HOUSE CONSIDERS AIRING INTELLIGENCE BUDGET
The House of Representatives Intelligence Committee is considering
legislation to open the budget of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to
public scrutiny, despite warnings that such disclosure could endanger U.S.
national security.
CIA Director James Woolsey told the panel February 22 that revealing what
his agency spends money on would make it easier for adversaries to
penetrate the American intelligence apparatus. Telling where money is
spent and in what amounts also tells adversaries about secret operations,
he warned the lawmakers.
At stake, Woolsey and the panel members agreed, is the principle of full
1isclosure of public outlays in a democracy. They also agreed that secrecy
with regard to expenditures should be government policy only when the
national security is truly at risk.
Their disagreement was whether the end of the Cold War has rendered that
secrecy unnecessary.
Committee Chairman Dan Glickman said that the matter bears examination. "We
live in a vastly different world now, and we need to consider carefully
whether the maintenance of secrecy in this area is merely a relic of the
Cold War or whether it serves a legitimate national security purpose," he
said.
Larry Combest, the ranking minority Republican on the Intelligence
Committee, backed Woolsey's stance and sharply disagreed with Glickman. "I
am strongly opposed to disclosure," which would be "the first step down a
road to disaster for our national security," he asserted.
Combest noted that the Clinton administration itself does not seek opening
the CIA budget to public examination -- a point exemplified by Woolsey's
testimony. He charged, however, that the president has agreed to consider
the matter only to please his colleagues among the leadership of the
Democratic majority in the Senate and House.
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