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Panel will expand phone tap oversight
The deal -- worked out Thursday between House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., and the panel's top Democrat, Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif. -- would open a comprehensive review of whether the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act needs to be modernized. Hoekstra and Harman sent the Justice Department a list of 27 questions they want answered.
In an interview, Hoekstra said he has an agreement with the White House to fully brief an undetermined number of lawmakers -- perhaps seven to 12 -- about the most classified operational details of the secretive National Security Agency's work.
Administration officials want additional oversight, Hoekstra said, "but they are also very concerned, just to make sure what is still secret in this program stays secret."
The White House has resisted such briefings in the past and has only shared full details of the program with the eight lawmakers who lead the House and Senate and the two intelligence committees. While Harman still wants all members of the intelligence panel to be briefed, she said, "this is movement in the right direction."
As part of its expanded oversight, the committee will privately receive information on the operations and authorities of the 1978 law and will later hold an open hearing to improve the public's understanding.
In a subtle nod to the difficult politics facing Congress as it seeks information from the administration, the committee is not initiating a full-scale investigation and will do this work in its normal course of oversight.
Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., who chairs a subcommittee that oversees the NSA, said she's interested in a thorough review of the 1978 law and details on the program's operations, limitations, oversight and privacy protections.
Wilson said a change in law might be necessary. "We want to make sure the intelligence agencies have the tools they need to gather intelligence," said Wilson, an Air Force veteran who grabbed headlines by breaking with the White House last month to publicly urge it to give more information to Congress.
During a committee session yesterday, however, Wilson and the nine other Republicans voted to disapprove a Democratic measure that would have required the administration to produce legal advisory opinions and intelligence reports related to the warrantless surveillance program. Hoekstra said his committee would request the information, without making it a demand from the House.
Democrats are trying to keep a focus on the need for more information. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., introduced a bill yesterday to investigate the Bush administration's eavesdropping program with a nonpartisan organization, called the National Commission on Surveillance Activities and the Rights of Americans.
A commission would "shed much-needed sunshine on any unlawful or unconstitutional executive intrusions into the lives of ordinary Americans," Byrd said.
He was critical of a letter, released this week, in which Attorney General Alberto Gonzales clarified his testimony on six different points he made before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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