WASHINGTON — The White House has renewed its threat to veto the fiscal 2010 intelligence authorization bill over a provision that would force the administration to widen the circle of lawmakers who are informed about covert operations and other sensitive activities.
When the bill passed the House on Feb. 25, the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, hailed it for improving “congressional oversight by strengthening certain disclosure requirements of intelligence activities to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.”
Lawmakers had spent the previous six months working out provisions the White House still opposes.
Under the House plan, which is similar to one passed by the Senate, the White House would have to inform all members of both intelligence committees of the “main features” of activities disclosed in detail to the so- called Gang of Eight — the speaker and minority leader of the House, the majority and minority leaders of the Senate, and the chairmen and ranking minority members of the Senate and House intelligence committees.
In a letter to the senior members of the intelligence panels, Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag said Gang of Eight notifications are made in only “the most limited of circumstances” affecting “vital interests” of the United States. Orszag argued that the new requirement would “undermine the president’s authority and responsibility to protect sensitive national security information.”
Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., chairman of the Senate panel, said that House and Senate staffers were working on the issues and that she thinks a bill can be passed.
