Should the Presidential Budget Include the Total Amount Requested by Each Intel Agency? (H.R. 5406)

What is H.R. 5406?

(Updated November 4, 2018)

This bill would require the president’s annual budget submission to Congress include the dollar amount requested for intelligence or intelligence-related activities by each intelligence agency. This would allow the public to see the total amount provided to each agency, but not line-item expenses. Under current law, members of Congress can only see the total amount of the budget request unless they’re members of the intelligence committee or have otherwise been briefed.on the matter.

It would require disclosure of budget requests from the following agencies: Air Force Intelligence, Army Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency, Coast Guard Intelligence, Defense Intelligence Agency, Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, Department of State, Department of Treasury, Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Marine Corps Intelligence, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, National Security Agency, and Navy Intelligence.

Argument in favor

This bipartisan bill increases intelligence agencies’ accountability to U.S. taxpayers, who deserve to know at a high-level know where these tax dollars go. This would satisfy the transparency recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Report.

Argument opposed

Intelligence agencies’ activities are often covert and even revealing their top-line budgets without disclosing line-item details could signal America’s priorities to its foreign adversaries, hindering or compromising national security.

Impact

The general public; members of Congress; intelligence agencies; and the White House.

Cost of H.R. 5406

There is no CBO estimate for this bill, as it does not incur a cost.

Additional Info

In-Depth: Congressman Peter Welch (D-VT) introduced this bill to increase transparency into intelligence agencies’ budgets and offered the following statement about his bill:

“Ensuring America’s national security requires professional and competent intelligence agencies. But the urgency  of the mission assigned to the 16 intelligence agencies should not shield them from budget accountability and transparency. In fact, the urgency of their mission makes the need for transparency even greater in order to assure Congress and the American people of the quality and effectiveness of their work.”

This legislation has the support of  four bipartisan cosponsors, including three Republicans and one Democrat. An identical version of this bill was introduced last Congress, which didn’t receive a vote.. This Congress, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rand Paul (R-KY) have introduced companion legislation in the Senate (S. 2631).

Of Note: Currently, intelligence agency budgets are funded with a so-called “black budget” supplement that is debated and voted upon behind closed doors by congressional appropriators. Until recently, not even aggregate intelligence spending requests were disclosed.

Media:

• Sponsoring Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) Request for Cosponsors