dispute among dems regarding intelligence oversight

[Enrique]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/2010/08/they_call_it_oversight.html

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The House won't get to its version of the authorization bill until after its summer recess, but even then, none of the major issues that have held up the bill are likely to be rubber-stamped.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi is "still talking with the administration to work out some issues," Brendan Daly, a spokesman for Pelosi said Thursday night.

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Some in the House would like not only to see more legislators brought in on sensitive programs, but also the Government Accountability Office given more responsibility for oversight of intelligence agency programs. The Senate abandoned such a provision in its bill after a threat of presidential veto, but the House Speaker is said to be talking to administration officials about getting the GAO provision into the House version of the bill.

Congressman Brad Miller (D-N.C.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight under the House Committee on Science and Technology, is one pushing for the GAO provision.

He argues that GAO has the expertise, experience and size to oversee intelligence work -- something he thinks congressional committees sometimes lack.

"The intel community has successfully insulated themselves from that kind of scrutiny to the determent of taxpayers and we aren't getting oversight of the substantial amount of money we're spending on intelligence," Miller said in a phone interview. "It has prevented us from being able to tell if they're doing their job successfully in keeping us safer, and prevents us from telling if they're abusing their powers."

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