Members who serve on committees with responsibilities in national security matters ordinarily come to appreciate the rules governing the disclosure of intelligence and why they are important. But Members who have not served on these committees often lack such understanding. One analyst interviewed for this study described a briefing he had provided to a particular Member of Congress who had no background in national security. Far from living in an environment where information is tightly controlled, Congress does most of its business in public. It is, first and foremost, a political institution.
Members constantly seek opportunities to get themselves and their positions before the public.
Moreover, they are constantly sifting through the information that reaches them to find ammunition for use in their political battles. At hearings or briefings, their questions frequently are aimed at eliciting information that supports a position they have taken or plan to take, at times straining to the point where the connection with the substance of the hearing or briefing is totally lost to the witness. If a Member becomes aware that the executive branch possesses intelligence that undermines the administration's position on a particular issue or lends credence to the Member's own position, he or she will be especially anxious to have it. And once in hand, the stronger the implications of such information for their position, the greater will be the temptation to use it. Policymakers also are looking for ammunition to use in their bureaucratic struggles, but these are not ordinarily played out in public view.