House Report on Intelligence Authorization 2010
The House Intelligence Committee last week filed its report on the FY 2010 intelligence authorization act, including many interesting and potentially important intelligence policy provisions.
Perhaps the most significant measure is the proposed creation of a statutory inspector general for the intelligence community. Other steps include a requirement to report on the number of Federal Government employees who hold security clearances (remarkably, a number that is not readily available today, even within the government); cautious endorsement of a limited role for the Government Accountability Office in intelligence oversight (a move favored by FAS [pdf]); expanded review and notification requirements concerning covert action; a proposed study on the possibility of revoking the pensions of persons who commit unauthorized disclosures of classified information; and quite a bit more.
See “Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010,” House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, H.Rept. 111-186, June 26, 2009.
This is bigger than a singular elimination of race and ethnicity questions. It could accelerate the second wave of widespread reductions to demographic data, leaving public health officials with even less information to deliver better health outcomes for all Americans.
Soft law was never meant to be a permanent solution. Treating it as one, and letting the sandcastle stand in for the skyscraper indefinitely, is how we end up with a decade of voluntary commitments and no enforceable accountability to show for it.
FAS has partnered with ICLEI USA to launch the CRI Local Advisory Council.
We sat down with Dr. Max Moritz and Chief Rob Hazard to discuss how communities use time, money, and data to reduce the risk that wildfires pose.