Official: Hill was not informed of other intelligence activities

A senior U.S. intelligence official told House lawmakers on Tuesday that more instances have been uncovered in which intelligence agencies failed to notify Congress about their activities.

Robert Litt, general counsel to the national intelligence director, agreed with lawmakers that the process for congressional notification needs to be improved.

During the public portion of a joint hearing of two House Intelligence subcommittees, Litt disclosed that Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair canvassed the intelligence agencies over the summer to see if they had been meeting their obligations -- and had proper policies in place -- to keep Congress informed of intelligence activities.

No "systemic" problems were discovered, but several instances were found where Congress was not informed about certain activities, which in hindsight should have been brought to the attention of lawmakers, Litt said.

Litt did not provide any details about the activities in his public testimony. Later, he said these were "minor instances."

The instances come on top of the disclosure in June by CIA Director Leon Panetta that Congress had been kept in the dark since 2001 about a covert program to assassinate terrorists abroad.

A spokeswoman for Blair said the instances were self-identified within the intelligence community in an effort to be proactive and to ensure that Congress is kept informed. She said the review was part of Blair's commitment to develop a better relationship with Congress.

After the review, Blair issued a memorandum to intelligence heads on Oct. 13 directing them to use best practices in keeping Congress informed.

The House Intelligence Committee is pursuing an investigation into whether intelligence agencies have broken the law by failing to keep Congress fully and currently informed of their activities.

Intelligence Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairwoman Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., asked Litt who is responsible within the executive branch for keeping Congress notified.

Litt said the primary responsibility rests with each agency's legislative office. But Blair has indicated there should be one person in each agency with that responsibility, Litt said.

Litt said one of the most important measures that could be taken is ensuring that rank-and-file intelligence officers know who that person is and are trained to understand which activities need to be briefed to Congress.

But he added, "It's always going to involve the exercise of judgment."

Intelligence Community Management Subcommittee Chairwoman Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., said she did not understand how the activity that Panetta disclosed in June could have been kept from Congress, given existing statutory requirements for notifying lawmakers. "That case says to me something is really broken," she said.

Litt said there is not a standard practice for what kind of records should be kept from briefings. When asked if there should be, he said, "I think it's definitely something that should be considered whether there should be more formality to that process."