The outside of the National Security Agency's main headquarters, at Fort Meade, Maryland.

The outside of the National Security Agency's main headquarters, at Fort Meade, Maryland. Trevor Paglen via Creative Time Reports

Why Size Doesn’t Matter When Judging the Intelligence Community

Instead of criticizing how big the Intelligence Community has grown, let’s get the US to do a better job explaining why.

No, the Intelligence Community isn’t “Bigger Than Ever.

Defense One and the Brennan Center for Justice published a real humdinger of an opinion piece about the growing size and cost of the Intelligence Community, or IC, where former FBI counterterrorism interrogator Michael German asserts:

The U.S. spends nearly $1 trillion on national security programs and agencies annually, more than any other nation in the world. Yet despite this enormous investment, there is not enough evidence to show the public that these programs are keeping Americans any safer – especially in the intelligence community.

There’s a budgetary bait-and-switch of massive proportions going on here. America’s “national security,” as defined in the broadest sense, costs about $1 trillion dollars annually, or approximately 25 percent of the federal budget.

But in the title, subtitle and the body of this 13-paragraph article, the author squarely focuses upon the IC’s budget-busting behavior. Yes, there are probably intelligence programs that fall outside of the $71.8 billion requested in fiscal 2016 for both the National Intelligence Budget and the Military Intelligence Budget. But contrary to the article’s title and emphasis, the Intelligence Community’s budget has actually declined by over 20 percent since hitting an all-time high in 2010. It truly isn’t “Bigger Than Ever.”

If you dig further into the article’s data, it falls apart like a house of cards. It conflates all kinds of numbers, including budget requests that have absolutely nothing to do with intelligence. By using The Project on Government Oversight’s numbers for fiscal 2016, German includes the nearly $600 billion Pentagon budget, no matter if it has anything to do with intelligence; the Veterans Affairs budget, at a whopping $166 billion, or more than double the amount the U.S. spends on intelligence issues; and the Department of Homeland Security’s $50 billion request.

Members of Congress, as the people’s representatives and keepers of the purse, must aggressively fulfill its oversight role and make sure the IC’s core abilities are protected while cutting the fat. 

Sure the IC has expanded—prior to 9/11, the IC’s budget was somewhere south of $40 billion—but also recall what America’s intelligence agencies have been asked to grapple with in the last 15 years. Beyond reorienting our intelligence capabilities to respond to that massive terrorist attack on the homeland and multiple near-misses, the U.S. also invaded and occupied two countries at the same time, generating an incredible amount of intelligence requirements. We’ve also seen the exponential growth of digital communications, requiring the IC to keep up and grow to meet these challenges. And our old state adversaries haven’t vanished either.

It's a pity the author hamstrung his own argument with shoddy numbers because some of what he says has merit. Of course, just throwing money at the intelligence agencies have probably caused massive inefficiencies and redundancies, hidden by degrees of classification. Indeed, it seems the mission and scope of the administration’s latest effort to integrate cyber efforts, the “Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center,” sounds a lot like one that already exists, DHS’ “National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center.” So, yes, the author has a point when he wrote, “the excessive secrecy shrouding intelligence activities means Americans have little public information from which to evaluate whether the intelligence enterprise is worth the investment.” But that’s the inherent tension of intelligence agencies within a democracy– their efforts are supposed to be secret.

But there’s a fix for this! Members of Congress, as the people’s representatives and keepers of the purse, must aggressively fulfill its oversight role and make sure the IC’s core abilities are protected while cutting the fat. Congress has a critical role in shuttering outdated systems, streamlining bureaucracies and squeezing broken programs. Otherwise, the system as constructed simply won’t work as well as it could.

Still, Congress needs help. Unfortunately, this article lacked specific recommendations where, exactly, Congress should bring the budgetary scalpel or broadsword to the intelligence community, or to the national security enterprise as a whole.  So here’s one way to cast a little more sunlight into the IC’s doings—provide a budget for each department and agency – i.e. the CIA this year has a budget of X, Office of the Director of National Intelligence has a budget of Y, etc. The sky won’t fall and the Russians or al-Qaeda wouldn’t suddenly have a massive advantage against America if they realize the agency has a few more or fewer dollars to spend this year.

Helping Congress make real budgetary choices is where the rubber meets the road. To excise real bloat would both help the IC and provide value to the American taxpayer. Bringing a degree of sunlight to the IC will help, but only if Congress is willing to get its hands dirty. And that starts with reducing misconceptions about the IC as a whole.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.