This report provides a review of congressional oversight of the Intelligence Community (IC) since establishment of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), particularly since the 9-11 Commission published its recommendations in its 2004 report. It also explores selected options for further reform, and offers questions that Congress may consider to assess the effectiveness of its oversight. In legislating, confirming appointees, authorizing programs and appropriating funds, Congress enables the IC, a community of seventeen discrete intelligence elements, to conduct the business of intelligence in support of United States national security. In addition, Congress has perspective that few others outside of the IC have. Oversight of the IC enables Congress to determine whether classified intelligence programs that are restricted from public disclosure are legal, ethical, and respectful of civil liberties. When there have been perceived abuses, Congress has often intervened to conduct hearings and legislate changes in intelligence process or organization. Several competing, sometimes overlapping, perspectives exist on the purpose for conducting congressional oversight of the IC: Some have argued that the primary responsibility of the intelligence committees is to provide the authority and strategic direction to enable continual improvement in the performance of intelligence programs in support of the most pressing national security challenges. Others have pointed to the role of the congressional intelligence committees in counterbalancing the power of the executive branch. This could result either through monitoring the IC as it implements programs and activities that support the executive's national security policies, or through ensuring that the IC is able to function independently of occasional instances of officials in the executive branch (including the president) choosing to politicize intelligence, or influence intelligence deliverables to support assumptions underlying policy decisions. This perspective holds that the IC must be able to exercise independence to be able to speak truth to power without abusing the power that that independence implies. Another perspective of the role of congressional oversight of the IC is that it serves as an external check on the power of the IC apart from the executive branch. This perspective draws from a perception of deep-seated biases inside the IC that proponents believe may be unethical, illegal, or resistant to executive policy. Each perspective may animate the thinking of various Members of the congressional intelligence committees at any given time. To the extent that Members share a perspective on oversight of the IC, they may be more likely to share views on the ways to conduct the oversight. Significant differences of opinion among Members on the purpose for conducting intelligence oversight, however, may signal a discordant tone in Congress's relations with the IC and hamper oversight efforts. Some believe that the intelligence committees' perceived tradition of bipartisanship and objectivity is of particular importance for effective oversight and a constructive relationship with the IC. Others, both within and outside of Congress, focus on what they perceive as weaknesses in the structure and authority of the congressional intelligence committees. While the IC has experienced significant reform over the past forty years since the establishment of the HPSCI and the SSCI, some have contended that Congress could do more to change the rules governing the committee structure and authority for conducting intelligence oversight. They note, for example, the number of committees that claim jurisdiction over intelligence matters dilutes the authority of the HPSCI and SSCI. Critics also note that despite to the diffusion of responsibility for oversight of intelligence in Congress, the growth of the IC—in the size and number of its subordinate elements, as well as its budget—has outstripped Congress's ability to provide adequate checks on the power of the executive or to develop the expertise and dedicate the time to strategically influence intelligence programs and policy. In 1974, the Hughes-Ryan amendment of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 ( P.L. 93-559 §32) provided the first statutory basis for congressional oversight and notification to Congress of covert action operations. This legislation resulted from Congress not being informed of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) activities abroad—in Chile and Southeast Asia in particular. The Hughes-Ryan legislation prohibits the use of appropriated funds for covert action unless the President issues a finding to Congress explaining the importance of the covert action to national security. In 1974, media reporting about potentially illegal domestic surveillance by the IC of the anti-Vietnam War movement prompted Congress to establish two select committees on intelligence to investigate—in the Senate, chaired by Idaho Senator Frank Church, and in the House, chaired by Representative Otis Pike. Previously, the Subcommittees on the CIA of the Senate and House Committees on Armed Services exercised nominal oversight of the IC. However, they were viewed by many to be too close to the agencies they oversaw to be objective. Many in Congress came to believe that the legal and ethical abuses by IC agencies resulted in part from an attitude characterized by some as "benign neglect" among the committees that had jurisdiction over intelligence matters. Senator Frank Church described the situation in the 1970s saying, "the Intelligence Community's immunity from congressional oversight had been a basic reason for the failures, inefficiencies and misdeeds of the past." The work of the Church and Pike committees, therefore, provided the first formal effort to understand the scope of the IC's illegal, and unethical intelligence activities. These committees became the model for a permanent oversight framework that could hold the intelligence community accountable for spending appropriated funds legally and ethically, and in support of identifiable national security objectives. In 1976, Congress established the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI). The following year it established the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). Since their establishment, however, the HPSCI and SSCI have been assisted in their oversight role by other committees that long had jurisdiction over intelligence matters related to their areas of responsibility. Intelligence and intelligence-related activities are often closely tied to foreign and defense policy, military operations, homeland security, cybersecurity, and law enforcement. Committees in both chambers for Foreign Affairs/Relations, Armed Services, Appropriations, Judiciary, and Homeland Security (after they were created), therefore, today share oversight jurisdiction of intelligence programs. Some observers of the IC have suggested these overlapping committee jurisdictions contribute to a perception of weak congressional intelligence committees that have relatively little authority and insufficient expertise. Others suggest that structural changes are less a concern than the degree of collegiality among members of the intelligence committees. These critics also suggest that committee members have had a tendency to focus less on forward-looking, strategic intelligence issues rather than tactical levels of intelligence. On January 24, 1978, President Jimmy Carter issued Executive Order 12036, United States Foreign Intelligence Activities . In a signing statement, President Carter described the order as: "…[ensuring] that foreign intelligence and counterintelligence activities are conducted in full compliance with the laws of the United States and are consistent with broader national security policies." Under a section on "Oversight of Intelligence Organizations," the order established that the: "…[Director of Central Intelligence] and heads of departments and agencies of the United States involved in intelligence activities shall…keep the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives and the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate fully and currently informed concerning intelligence activities, including any significant anticipated activities which are the responsibility of, or engaged in, by such department or agency." Carter described these provisions as "[instructing] the DCI and senior officers of the Intelligence Community…to report to the congressional intelligence committees in a complete and prompt manner," thereby strengthening the intelligence oversight process. Congressional intelligence committees authorize intelligence activities through annual intelligence authorization acts. Section 504 of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S. Code §3094) provides the statutory basis for authorization of specific intelligence or intelligence-related activities rather than a general authorization for intelligence activities within a department or agency. The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1981 ( P.L. 96-450 ) codified E.O. 12036 requirements for prior notification of Congress, specifically the requirements for the IC to keep the congressional intelligence committees "fully and currently informed" of intelligence activities, including any significant anticipated intelligence activities. This includes providing to the congressional intelligence committees information they might request in the course of their oversight responsibilities. It also requires IC elements to report any illegal activities or significant intelligence failures. Lastly, in the event of any covert action, the urgency of which prevents prior notification to Congress, the legislation requires the President to notify the congressional intelligence committees "in a timely fashion" subsequently. The CIA did not have an independent IG until Congress, perceiving that the agency lacked the inclination to adequately oversee its own activities in the events leading to the Iran-Contra scandal, took action. The CIA Inspector General Act of 1989 provided for a statutory IG, appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, who is responsible for ensuring the congressional intelligence committees are kept "fully and currently informed" of "significant problems and deficiencies as well as the necessity for and the progress of corrective actions." The CIA IG is required to provide semiannual reports to the congressional intelligence committees, along with copies of other reports upon request. The Report of the 9/11 Commission provides a rubric for assessing the progress of congressional oversight of intelligence, and the report's recommendations have helped frame discussions of further reform. As the Commission noted, oversight reform would not be easy: "Of all our recommendations, strengthening congressional oversight may be among the most difficult and important. So long as oversight is governed by current congressional rules and resolutions, we believe the American people will not get the security they want and need….Having interviewed numerous members of Congress from both parties, as well as congressional staff members, we found that dissatisfaction with congressional oversight remains widespread….When their unfamiliarity with the subject is combined with the need to preserve security, a mandate emerges for substantial change….Tinkering with the existing structure is not sufficient." Some, while acknowledging the Commission's assessment of Congress's oversight of intelligence as "dysfunctional," have suggested many of its recommendations would be very difficult to implement from a political standpoint.