Congressional panels clash over satellite programs
Fight during a markup on Wednesday was the latest between intelligence authorizers and Defense appropriators over intelligence spending.
Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee and Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee butted heads this week over funding for intelligence-related programs, with one key senator saying that billions in taxpayer dollars are being wasted.
Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Christopher (Kit) Bond, R-Mo., said Friday that he and other panel members want to create a technology demonstration program for "overhead imagery" programs, which includes classified military satellites.
Bond said the National Reconnaissance Office has wasted billions in taxpayer funds because it does not have an effective means to determine if and how technology will work before proceeding with big-ticket programs.
When Bond and other Intelligence members offered the idea at a Defense Appropriations Subcommittee markup of the fiscal 2009 Defense spending bill Wednesday, however, they were shot down, according to Bond.
Bond noted that National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell also opposed the idea of funding a technology demonstration program. "There are literally many billions of dollars that have been wasted in the National Reconnaissance Organization because of their acquisition methods. They need acquisition reform," Bond said. "I had proposed a technological demonstration program, but the intelligence community said we don't need it ... and yet they keep coming back to us with these failed programs in which we have blown literally billions of dollars." He labeled the NRO as standing for "no results observable."
He added: "We are wasting taxpayers' money. We're not getting the results that we need."
The fight at Wednesday's markup was the latest between intelligence authorizers and Defense appropriators over intelligence spending. The incident prompted Bond to introduce a bill Thursday, on the seven-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, that would create a new intelligence appropriations subcommittee to review and approve funding for the national intelligence program, which includes the NRO. Bond said Defense appropriators have their hands full with reviewing and approving Defense spending and cannot give adequate attention to the budget of the national intelligence program -- about 9 percent of overall Defense spending.
"No disrespect to the outstanding leaders of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee," Bond said. "It is just not possible for them to be up to speed on all the details of intelligence." Bond added that the first time members of the Intelligence Committee saw the classified portion of the Defense appropriations bill was 18 hours before Wednesday's markup. He said he asked for a classified hearing but was also shot down. "When you control the purse strings, that's when things happen," he said.
Spokesmen for the DNI and for Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, could not be immediately reached for comment.