On May 24, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence passed the 2008 Intelligence Authorization Bill, which includes a number of important open government and accountability measures. Having failed to pass an intelligence authorization bill for the previous two years, the full Senate is expected to consider the measure later this summer, and the House passed the bill 225-197 earlier in May.

"Intelligence Authorization bills are the most important tools we have in Congress to strengthen existing programs and better prepare for the future," stated Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. "The Congress failed to pass an authorization bill the past two years. That is unacceptable, and Vice Chairman Bond and I are committed to making sure that it doesn't happen again."

The 2008 Intelligence Authorization Bill would institute a number of important open government and accountability provisions, requiring increased reporting and oversight of the intelligence community:

Inspectors General: creation of an inspector general in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to oversee the intelligence community and of inspectors general at the National Security Agency (NSA), National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).

Spending Disclosure: requirement to disclose the total amount of funding requested, authorized and appropriated for the intelligence community. This has been recommended by the 9/11 Commission and others but opposed by the White House.

Contractor Oversight: requirement for intelligence agencies to report to the House and Senate intelligence committees on the number of contractors used and in what capacity. As previously reported, intelligence agencies heavily rely on contractors but, even though a comprehensive study was recently completed, little to no information about such practices has been released.

Anti-spying: restatement that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is the exclusive means for wiretapping to gather foreign intelligence information. This would prevent the executive from collecting foreign intelligence through such programs as the now-defunct Terrorist Surveillance Program.

Disclosure of Reports: requirement to provide the House and Senate intelligence committees with all of the Presidential Daily Briefings (PDBs) concerning Iraq from 1997 to 2003 and a requirement to publicly disclose a declassified version of the executive summary of a Central Intelligence Agency Inspector General report on the lead-up to 9/11.

The 2008 Intelligence Authorization Bill is expected to make its way to the Senate floor in June or July, but its eventual fate is uncertain. Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO), Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, opposed some of the reporting requirements, including the requirement to make all PDBs available to the intelligence committees. "Unfortunately, a few amendments were adopted by the [Senate Intelligence] Committee that will make final passage more difficult, but we will continue to work to improve the bill when it gets to the floor and in conference."