Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this hearing. As the 9/11 Commission concluded and as our distinguished witnesses have reiterated today, intelligence reform, which is so critical to protecting our country, depends on effective congressional oversight. I supported the Commission’s recommendation to give appropriations authority over the intelligence budget to the intelligence committees when it was first proposed in 2004 and continue to support it today.

In recent years, however, it has become overwhelmingly clear that the greatest impediment to effective congressional oversight of intelligence is this Administration’s consistent, unbending contempt for Congress’s constitutional role in this area. A full account of the Administration’s actions begins, of course, with its secret violations of the laws passed by Congress, specifically the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Yet, despite the outcry prompted by its illegal warrantless wiretapping program, the Administration still won’t commit to abide by the laws of this country, issuing so-called “signing statements” as statutes become law and refusing to rule out future assertions of the president’s supposed authority to disregard FISA. Recently, the Administration has even stated, in writing, that it intends to simply ignore Congress’s budgetary oversight of a classified intelligence program.

The Administration has also repeatedly refused to brief this Committee on important intelligence matters, as is required by law. The country is by now familiar with the Administration’s failure to inform the Committee about the warrantless wiretapping program, for five years before the program was revealed and acknowledged, and for months thereafter. But this problem continues. We know that the Administration continues to abuse the so-called “Gang of Eight” provision by hiding important intelligence matters from the full Committee. What we don’t know is the full extent of the abuse.

The list of reports and other information sought by the Committee and denied by the Administration is extensive and much of it is classified. The Administration’s efforts to deny Congress information even extends to the third branch of government – the FISA Court, whose interpretations of law Congress needs to conduct oversight and to consider new legislation. Imagine if the Administration sought to keep from Congress Supreme Court decisions related to the legality and constitutionality of the laws passed by Congress and of the government’s actions. In the area of intelligence surveillance, it is the FISA Court that makes these decisions and the Administration’s attempts to hide them from Congress, even as it demands that new FISA legislation be passed, is unacceptable.

The public record of the Administration’s contempt for congressional oversight of intelligence is lengthy. The Administration’s threat to veto the current Intelligence Authorization bill is based almost completely on Congress’s efforts to improve oversight. The Administration opposes efforts to obtain intelligence-related documents, generally and with regard to detention and interrogation. It opposes congressional efforts to learn about how the Administration is interpreting the Detainee Treatment Act. And it opposes Senate confirmation of important leadership positions in the Intelligence Community.

This list is only a partial indication of this Administration’s contempt for Congress’s constitutional responsibility to conduct oversight of intelligence. The Administration’s actions not only violate our constitutional principles and our system of checks and balances, they have undermined our national security. As our distinguished witnesses have stated clearly and consistently, congressional oversight is critical if we are to have an effective Intelligence Community that defends our national interests as well as our laws, our Constitution and our principles as a nation.