Congress Needs the Facts

The President needs strong tools to learn the plans and intentions of our enemies. But those tools must comply with the law and be subjected to oversight. It may be the case that the NSA program has to be modified to comply with the law, or that the law has to be modified. Before making those decisions, the Intelligence Committee needs to get the facts, which is why I'm demanding that the President permit our Committee to be briefed.

Now that the President has publicly disclosed the existence of a classified NSA program, I believe the full intelligence committees must be briefed. As I stated in a letter I sent the president yesterday, the President is required to keep the congressional intelligence committees "fully and currently" informed of all intelligence activities. The 1947 National Security Act only permits the President to limit the briefings to the so-called Gang of 8 for "covert action" programs. Covert action is defined as "activities of the United States Government to influence political, economic, or military conditions abroad, where it is intended that the role of the United States Government will not be apparent." The NSA program is not a covert action.

After carefully reviewing the statute, I now believe the practice of briefing only certain Members of the intelligence committees violates the specific requirements of the law.

On a related issue, all nine Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee introduced legislation that would strengthen accountability and oversight of National Security Letters (NSLs), which are requests for personal data and records issued directly by government agencies without the approval of a judge.

Our bill, H.R. 4570, which is also supported by Rep. John Conyers and Rep. Howard Berman on the Judiciary Committee, would require the FISA court to sign off on the NSL before it can be issued by an FBI agent. In addition, Congress would receive regular, detailed reports.

As Congress reconsiders extending the Patriot Act in early February, we hope our bill will be included.