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The spending bill just agreed by Congress over the weekend explicitly specifies zero funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead, or RRW, and support for the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, but below the administration’s request. The RRW is a new nuclear weapon that the administration claims is essential to maintaining the integrity of the nuclear arsenal. […]
Senator Barack Obama praised the launch of a new government website yesterday that tracks federal contract awards. The new website — USAspending.gov — constitutes “an important milestone on the path to greater openness and transparency in the Federal Government,” he said. “I have been very troubled by the extent to which America has become a […]
Although last year’s budget for national intelligence was disclosed, current year spending remains classified, reflecting a judgment by the Bush Administration that its disclosure would cause serious damage to national security. So it is interesting to see that current intelligence spending is treated matter-of-factly in some other countries, and publicly disclosed without any fanfare at […]
Noteworthy new reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not been made available to the public online include the following (all pdf). “Africa Command: U.S. Strategic Interests and the Role of the U.S. Military in Africa,” updated December 7, 2007. “China’s Currency: Economic Issues and Options for U.S. Trade Policy,” updated November 29, 2007. […]
On 14 November, Peter Orszag, Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee about the relative costs of plutonium reprocessing and direct disposal of used nuclear fuel. The oral testimony was quite brief and, unless otherwise noted, my comments are based primarily on the longer and presumably […]
Even if the videotapes of interrogation sessions that were destroyed by the Central Intelligence Agency showed nothing illegal or untoward, their destruction could still be a violation of the federal law which requires the preservation of official records, suggested Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) yesterday. Rep. Waxman asked Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein to […]
Perhaps the clearest indication lately that intelligence oversight still matters is a new White House Statement of Administration Policy (pdf) expressing strong opposition to the FY2008 Intelligence Authorization bill. “If this bill were to pass the House and the Senate and be presented to the President for signature, the President’s senior advisors would recommend that […]
A bipartisan resolution to provide online public access to Congressional Research Service reports was introduced in the Senate yesterday. “The Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate, in consultation with the Director of the Congressional Research Service, shall make available through a centralized electronic system, for purposes of access and retrieval by the public … all information described […]
A federal appeals court last week overturned (pdf) a lower court ruling that the CIA had won in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit involving JFK assassination records, and ordered CIA to continue processing the request. The case involves records sought by journalist Jefferson Morley that he believes will provide new insight into the assassination. […]
The Office of the Vice President is not an “agency” for purposes of the executive order on classification and therefore its classification and declassification activity no longer need be reported to the Information Security Oversight Office, the Justice Department finally informed ISOO Director Bill Leonard in a newly disclosed letter (pdf). In a January 9, […]
Defense Department officials improperly withheld crucial data from the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission that might have justified the continued operation of certain Department laboratories and facilities, according to a new insider account (pdf). A detailed timeline supported by a hundred pages of internal documentation leads the author to urge a reversal of the […]