Cloak and Dollar Oversight

12/25/2006

NY Times Editorial
Published: December 25, 2006


The surest way to track power on Capitol Hill is to follow the money through the precincts of “the old bulls” — the ranking committee appropriators who paw the floor at any threat to their authority. All the more interesting, then, that the incoming House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, would risk their ire by forming a select committee to force the two discordant spheres of intelligence committees — budget wielders and policy watchdogs — to find common ground.


For decades, rival committees and egos have been at the heart of Congress’s failure to effectively oversee the government’s mass of overlapping spy agencies. The results have been so bad that the 9/11 commission said they contributed to the lack of preparedness for the terrorist attacks.


It should be no great challenge to ensure that intelligence committee lawmakers who must oversee policy and operations have a say in how intelligence budget money is being spent. Right now, they don’t. Pentagon insiders and other lobbyists shrewdly focus on the appropriations committees to have their way, with effectiveness an afterthought. This only deepens, not clarifies, the murky task of oversight.


Whether Ms. Pelosi’s plan will help undo the knotted committee process remains to be seen, but it is an encouraging prod toward joint responsibility. The select committee, with members from the budget and policy spheres, is to review spending requests, make recommendations, hold hearings and assess how well programs are working. The new Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, has promised to study the initiative, and if he does not duplicate it, he should find something even better. It is time to bring the almighty dollar in from the cold as a principal agent in the wily art of avoiding intelligence oversight.