ACCESSION 
NUMBER:328024

FILE ID:POL205

DATE:02/22/94

TITLE:CONGRESSIONAL REPORT, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22 (02/22/94)

TEXT:*94022205.POL

CONGRESSIONAL REPORT, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22



(Intelligence budget)  (300)

HOUSE CONSIDERS AIRING INTELLIGENCE BUDGET

The House of Representatives Intelligence Committee is considering

legislation to open the budget of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to

public scrutiny, despite warnings that such disclosure could endanger U.S.

national security.



CIA Director James Woolsey told the panel February 22 that revealing what

his agency spends money on would make it easier for adversaries to

penetrate the American intelligence apparatus.  Telling where money is

spent and in what amounts also tells adversaries about secret operations,

he warned the lawmakers.



At stake, Woolsey and the panel members agreed, is the principle of full

1isclosure of public outlays in a democracy.  They also agreed that secrecy

with regard to expenditures should be government policy only when the

national security is truly at risk.



Their disagreement was whether the end of the Cold War has rendered that

secrecy unnecessary.



Committee Chairman Dan Glickman said that the matter bears examination.  "We

live in a vastly different world now, and we need to consider carefully

whether the maintenance of secrecy in this area is merely a relic of the

Cold War or whether it serves a legitimate national security purpose," he

said.



Larry Combest, the ranking minority Republican on the Intelligence

Committee, backed Woolsey's stance and sharply disagreed with Glickman.  "I

am strongly opposed to disclosure," which would be "the first step down a

road to disaster for our national security," he asserted.



Combest noted that the Clinton administration itself does not seek opening

the CIA budget to public examination -- a point exemplified by Woolsey's

testimony.  He charged, however, that the president has agreed to consider

the matter only to please his colleagues among the leadership of the

Democratic majority in the Senate and House.



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