Bills
| 3.23.22

The "Black Budget": Intelligence Spending for Fiscal Year 2015 (H.R. 4681)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is H.R. 4681?

(Updated July 18, 2017)

This bill was enacted on December 19, 2014

The U.S. intelligence budget. The bill comprises the funding for the sixteen agencies collectively known as the United States Intelligence Community, abbreviated as IC. A list of those agencies can be found below. The IC is divided into two parts: the National Intelligence Program (NIP) and the Military Intelligence Program (MIP). The MIP deals with all expenses for military-related intelligence programs (for example, Coast Guard intelligence); the NIP deals with everything else (for example, the CIA). For Fiscal Year 2015, the funding request for the NIP was $45.6 billion, while funding for the MIP was $13.3 billion. This bill is one of the twelve, annual spending bills that direct how the majority of taxpayer dollars are spent. 

Argument in favor

The overall request is down more than $2 billion from Fiscal Year ’14. These agency programs are critical to U.S. safety and security. Reduces lower priority programs, putting money where it's needed most.

Argument opposed

Much of Congress is not allowed to see line item budget requests of each agency, thereby making it difficult to gauge the cost-effectiveness of individual agency programs.

Impact

When enacted, the bill will set funding levels for Fiscal Year ’15 (October 1st, 2014 to September 30th, 2015) for the sixteen agencies comprising the United States Intelligence Community.

Cost of H.R. 4681

Additional Info

Media: 




Of Note: 

-Notably, the appropriations bill includes a provision that states, "the authorization of appropriations by this Act shall not be deemed to constitute authority for the conduct of any intelligence activity which is not otherwise authorized the Constitution or laws of the United States." 

-This bill, in addition to dealing with intelligence spending for next fiscal year, addresses portions of the current fiscal year's (FY 14) defense budget, with the surplus of focus being on the Intelligence Community Management Account of the Director of National Intelligence (ICMA). According to the Congressional Budgeting Office, the ICMA "provides the principal source of funding for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and resources for managing the intelligence agencies."

-The House Committee on Rules has stated that any Member of the House who seeks to add an amendment to the bill must do so by Wednesday, May 28th. 

-In August 2013, the  reported for the first time on the spending levels of individual intelligence agencies. 

-The Daily Beast has obtained line items for the FY 15 intelligence budget. They can be found here. 

-The sixteen agencies known to receive funding through the intelligence budget are: 

  1. Air Force Intelligence
  2. Army Intelligence
  3. CIA
  4. Coast Guard Intelligence
  5. Defense Intelligence Agency
  6. Department of Energy (note that funding for the DOE’s nuclear weapons program is handled via the National Defense Authourization Act, a separate spending bill)
  7. Department of Homeland Security
  8. State Department
  9. Department of the Treasury
  10. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
  11. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
  12. Marine Corps Intelligence
  13. National Geo-spatial Intelligence Agency
  14. National Reconnaissance Office
  15. National Security Agency
  16. Navy Intelligence