Eyes on Spies: Congress and the United States Intelligence

Eyes on Spies: Congress and the United States Intelligence Community (Hoover Inst Press Publication Book 603)

WHY CONGRESS'S BIGGEST INTELLIGENCE OVERSIGHT PROBLEMS LIE WITH ...CONGRESS

Ten years after 9/11, the least reformed part of America's intelligence system is not the CIA or FBI but the US Congress. In Eyes on Spies, Amy Zegart examines the weaknesses of U.S. intelligence oversight and why those deficiencies have persisted, despite the unprecedented importance of intelligence in today's environment. She argues that many of the biggest oversight problems lie with Congressâ€”the institution, not the parties or personalitiesâ€”showing how Congress has collectively and persistently tied its own hands in overseeing intelligence.

Supporting sound logic with extensive data, the author offers a comparative analysis of oversight activities of intelligence with other policy areas to show that Congress is not overseeing nearly as much in intelligence as in other policy domains. Electoral incentives, she reveals, explain why. Zegart also identifies two key institutional weaknesses: one, the rules, procedures, and practices that have hindered the development of legislative expertise in intelligence and, two, committee jurisdictions and policies that have fragmented Congress's budgetary power over executive branch intelligence agencies. She concludes that, unfortunately, electoral incentives on the outside and the zero-sum nature of committee power on the inside provide powerful reasons for Congress to continue hobbling its own oversight capabilities.

Amy Zegart is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and an affiliated faculty member at the Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University. She has been featured in the National Journal as one of the ten most influential experts in intelligence reform.
Country USA
Manufacturer Hoover Institution Press
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2011-11-08
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Hoover Institution Press
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2011-11-08
Format	Kindle eBook

Eyes on Spies: Congress and the United States Intelligence Community (Hoover Inst Press Publication Book 603)

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