Democrats plan new intelligence oversight

House Democrats unveiled plans Thursday to create a single congressional panel to oversee both the budgets and operations of American intelligence agencies, a realignment that would give lawmakers greater control of the expanding U.S. espionage community.

The proposal would mark the first significant change in congressional oversight of U.S. spy agencies since the House and Senate intelligence committees were created in the mid-1970s.

It also would allow the newly elected Democratic majority to exert more influence over the nation’s 16 U.S. spy agencies.

Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said the reorganization “removes the barriers” between existing committees that control spending and monitor the overseas operations of the CIA and other spy services.

“This panel will have the responsibility to hold hearings, to consider the budget for intelligence,” Pelosi said. “Its purpose is to protect the American people with the best possible intelligence.”

The change was announced as part of a package of national security measures and other initiatives Democrats have pledged to enact quickly when they take control of the chamber next month for the first time since 1994.

House Republican leader John A. Boehner of Ohio said he and other GOP members were reviewing the proposal and welcomed efforts “to improve congressional oversight of America’s intelligence systems.”

The proposal is designed to fix flaws in congressional oversight that were outlined by the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In particular, that panel concluded that congressional controls were routinely undermined because the lawmakers responsible for monitoring the overseas operations of the CIA and other agencies lacked authority over spy agency budgets.

Since its creation in 1977, the House Intelligence Committee has helped set the broad parameters for intelligence budgets. But specific spending decisions have been made by the House appropriations panel and its defense subcommittee.

In several cases in recent years, priorities identified by the intelligence panel were ignored or blocked by the appropriations committee, according to congressional officials familiar with the matter. Spy agencies would also routinely bypass the intelligence committees and appeal to appropriations to fund pet projects.

“Whenever they ran into a problem with us, they quickly knocked on the door of appropriators and worked it out,” said one congressional staffer who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Pelosi’s plan is aimed at closing that loophole by creating the Select Intelligence Oversight Panel. It would develop a detailed budget for intelligence agencies, then deliver that blueprint to the defense subcommittee, which sets the so-called black budgets of U.S. espionage.

A spokesman for Pelosi said the composition of the panel has not been determined, although it is expected that the incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), would be among those selected. Three members of the new panel would be drawn from the intelligence committee and six from the defense appropriations subcommittee.

“I think it’s a significant step forward,” said Slade Gorton, a former U.S. senator from Washington who was a member of the Sept. 11 commission. “It means there will be one group of members who will be primarily responsible for the intelligence budget. They will therefore pay attention to it and provide a greater degree of oversight.”

Republicans characterized the proposal as a compromise arrangement that fell short of Democrats’ campaign pledge to enact the recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission.

Former Rep. Timothy J. Roemer (D-Ind.), a member of the Sept. 11 panel, said, “While this solution is not the precise formula the commission recommended, it clearly achieves the commission’s goals.”

Given the proposed new panel’s influence over spending, as well as its authority to hold hearings and issue subpoenas, some on Capitol Hill questioned whether it could become more powerful than the House Intelligence Committee.

Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly said that was not the aim.

“The intent of this is not to usurp the authority of either one but to work more closely with both of them,” he said, referring to the intelligence and appropriations committees.

The U.S. intelligence budget is classified. But officials familiar with the matter have said spending on spy agencies has surged to more than $40 billion per year, up from about $30 billion at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks.

greg.miller@latimes.com