Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 4299 - Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1995

(House)
(Glickman (D) KS)

The Administration has no objection to H.R. 4299 and will oppose any amendment on the House floor further reducing intelligence spending. Moreover, the Administration will seek, during further congressional consideration, to restore the requested authorization levels for certain programs. In addition, the Administration urges the House to delete the provisions that would:

—      Establish a statutory Office of the Inspector General within the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency. These agencies are within the purview of the statutory Department of Defense Inspector General. To establish more than one statutory Inspector General in the same department would result in jurisdictional and reporting conflicts and would be an undesirable precedent.

—      Restrict further the President's choice of Inspector General for the Central intelligence Agency to those individuals who have previous Federal Inspector General experience. Such a restriction does not exist for the other Inspectors General that the President nominates, would limit the President's discretion, and may preclude the selection of the most qualified nominee.

—      Require investigating agencies to notify persons of requests made by the agencies for access to records, reports/ or other information about them. Such a requirement could be counterproductive, because the notification could potentially interfere with the investigation.

Furthermore, the Administration opposes any change to H.R. 1299 that would disclose, or require the disclosure of the aggregate amount of funds authorized for intelligence activities. The current procedure that provides for the authorization of appropriations in a classified annex continues to be appropriate.

Pay-As-You-Go Scoring

H.R. 4299 would affect direct spending and receipts; therefore, it is subject to the pay-as-you-go requirement of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990. OMB's preliminary scoring of this bill is zero. Final scoring of this legislation may differ from this estimate.