House reforms intelligence oversight
Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the creation today of a new Select Intelligence Oversight Panel within the House Committee on Appropriations, the role of which would be to bridge the gap between intelligence oversight and authorization at the HPSCI and intelligence spending, which is largely controlled today by the Subcommittee on Defense of House Committee on Appropriations. This change is part of the incoming Congress’s efforts to implement the 9/11 Commission Report recommendations, and is specifically responsive to Recommendation #33 in the 9/11 Commission Report (see pages 20-21 here). It runs counter to a Washington Post story from November which suggested that reorganization of intelligence authorities was unlikely to take place in the House, given opposition to the idea among House appropriators.
