| Washington, D.C.–The U.S. House of Representatives today unanimously approved the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009, H.R. 5959, despite a veto threat from President Bush. The Intelligence Act included a provision offered by U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, which will prohibit the CIA from using contractors to interrogate detainees. "It's ironic that the reasons I supported this bill are the same reasons the President the said he would veto this legislation. Instead of giving the President a blank check, the Democratic-led Congress reasserted itself today by demanding an equal role in providing for our national security,... said U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL). "The House-passed intelligence bill includes a number of provisions, including my provision to prohibit contractors from performing interrogations, which would bring greater oversight, transparency and accountability to the intelligence community. I urge the President to withdraw his veto threat and to accept the results of today's unanimous vote.... In addition to authorizing appropriations for intelligence activities for fiscal year 2009, the Intelligence Authorization Act calls for more accountability, oversight, transparency and effective intelligence management by:
• Prohibiting the use of contractors for CIA detainee interrogations;
• Creating a new Inspector General for the Intelligence Community (IG/IC);
• Limiting use of all covert action funds until the committee is briefed on the all covert actions
• Mandating CIA IG audits of all covert action programs every three years;
• Requiring report on compliance with the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 and related provisions of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 regarding detentions and interrogations, as well as all DOJ legal opinions related to these activities;
• Requiring a National Intelligence Estimate on Syria WMD;
• Requiring semi annual reports on North Korea, Iran and Syria nuclear and on loose nukes (nuclear trafficking);
• Requiring annual report on resources dedicated to Iraq and Afghanistan;
• Requiring President to report recommendations for creation of an advisory panel on cyber which will review the roles and authorities of IC, DHS and DoD;
• Creating statutory, Senate confirmed IC Inspector General (IG) with the authority to inspect, audit and investigate activities across the IC;
• Requiring guidelines for the implementation of an IC multi-level security clearance approach to increase linguistic and cultural expertise;
• Requiring DNI to create an Ombudsman for Security Clearances, and the Ombudsman to issue a report on the number of contacts, complaints, etc.;
• Requiring OMB to report on security clearances that take more than one year to complete;
• Requiring reports on use of contractors; workforce diversity; foreign language proficiency; protecting intelligence officer and agents identities; implementing data efficiency report recommendation;
• Reviving the Commission to review the status of Research and Development in the IC. | |
