No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law . [U.S. Constitution, Article I, §9] Over the years Congress has devised complex procedures for appropriations and authorization, but the pattern has been to separate the authorization and appropriation process and to establish separate committees to address the separate functions. Although intelligence spending has historically been shrouded in secrecy, the Constitution, statutory law, and legislative branch procedures apply to intelligence agencies as they do for all government departments and agencies. It is the purpose of this report to discuss the effects of the absence of intelligence authorization legislation subsequent to FY2005 and comment on the substantial but limited effects of recent intelligence authorization acts. It is recognized that the statutory requirements have been met by the catchall provisions in appropriations acts. The report will not focus on the reasons why Congress did not pass intelligence authorization; it is sufficient to note that Members did not choose to compromise either among themselves or with the White House on issues they considered important. In the absence of authorization legislation, intelligence activities continue to be carried out, and expensive and complex intelligence systems continue to be approved; but the process is somewhat different from that intended when the intelligence committees were established in the late 1970s and there are significant implications for congressional oversight of intelligence activities and, arguably, for the nation's intelligence effort as a whole. To carry out the constitutional duty of funding government activities, Congress has established a two-step process. First, it authorizes an agency or program. Secondly, Congress appropriates funds for the authorized agency or program. The separation of authorization and appropriations legislation provides Congress with an opportunity to permit one set of committees (authorizing committees) to address the needs of programs in their jurisdictions while another set of committees (appropriations committees) is designed to consider the finances of the federal government as a whole and guard against excess spending. In general, authorizing committees and their staffs develop extensive expertise in their agencies. Appropriations committees focus on allocating funds within an overall budget total. Appropriations committees are generally more limited in staff and often do not delve into the detailed activities of government departments. Authorization committees, however, have staff to undertake more detailed evaluations of agency programs and monitor implementation of congressional guidance. Appropriations bills (or continuing resolutions) must be enacted every year, but agencies and activities may be authorized on a standing basis. Such authorizations are provided to most agencies that carry out their designated responsibilities year after year. Some important agencies and programs, however, are authorized on an annual basis. In the 1960s, the size and complexity of defense programs led to a congressional determination to authorize the nation's defense effort on an annual basis and, since that time, the scope of national defense authorization acts has been expanded to include specific policy directions for all types of military activities and programs, ranging from personnel to procurement of major weapons systems. Defense authorization bills became a main focus of legislative interest and have guaranteed that congressional concerns are continuously addressed by the Defense Department. In the 1970s similar procedures would be established for intelligence agencies. A standing authorization for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was provided by the National Security Act of 1947 (P.L. 80-235), and this was thought to be adequate. There was no perceived need for annual authorizations for CIA for over a quarter century, and the activities of other intelligence agencies were authorized as part of their parent departments' authorizations. In the mid-1970s, however, Congress, concerned about intelligence agencies operating behind a wall of secrecy, and at times engaged in questionable activities, created the two intelligence committees to provide oversight. The respective rules that established the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) provided that "no funds would be expended by national intelligence agencies unless such funds shall have been previously authorized by a bill or joint resolution passed by the Senate [House] during the same or preceding fiscal year to carry out such activity for such fiscal year." (Both resolutions provided an exception for continuing appropriations bills or resolutions.) In 1985, Section 504 of the National Security Act was tightened to require that appropriated funds available to an intelligence agency could be obligated or expended for an intelligence or intelligence-related activity only if "those funds were specifically authorized by the Congress for use for such activities." After the establishment of the two intelligence committees, the appropriations committees came to defer more to them; one senior member of the House Appropriations Committees has been quoted as explaining in 1983, "Our subcommittee has backed off and done less as [HPSCI] has become more important. My own view is if you've got a committee dealing day in and day out with intelligence, that's the way it should be." Today, the intelligence committees have extensive staffs—approximately 40 each for SSCI and HPSCI. The House committee has subcommittees devoted to terrorism, human intelligence, analysis, and counterintelligence; intelligence community management; technical and tactical intelligence; and oversight and investigations. The Senate committee is not divided into subcommittees. Both committees annually conduct numerous classified hearings and a few unclassified hearings relating to intelligence activities and programs. Most intelligence spending is appropriated by the defense appropriations legislation prepared by the defense appropriations subcommittees, which each have approximately 15-20 staff members. The first intelligence authorization bill that became law was that for FY1979 ( P.L. 95-370 ); the Senate had passed an authorization bill the year before, but the House, not then having its own intelligence committee, took no action on the bill. From FY1979 to FY2005, annual intelligence authorization bills were enacted, although on many occasions the intelligence authorization acts were not signed until well into the fiscal year for which they authorized funds. When appropriations legislation has passed prior to enactment of intelligence authorization bills, Congress has met the requirement for specific authorization of intelligence activities through the use of a "catchall" provision in defense appropriations acts. For example, Section 8080 of the Consolidated Security, Disaster, and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2009 ( P.L. 110-329 ), enacted on September 30, 2008, states, "Funds appropriated by this Act, or made available by the transfer of funds in this Act, for intelligence activities are deemed to be specifically authorized by the Congress for purposes of Section 504 of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 414) during fiscal year 2009 until the enactment of the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009." This provision meets the requirements of the National Security Act while acknowledging the potential for subsequent passage of an intelligence authorization act. Similar provisions have been included in other defense appropriation acts and in various supplementary appropriations bills since, almost always, appropriation bills have been enacted prior to intelligence authorization bills. A section of some 60 words has thus been routinely substituted for authorizing bills that, along with their accompanying reports (with classified annexes), normally run to hundreds of pages. Undoubtedly, the executive branch gives consideration to congressional concerns, even those expressed informally, but the report language and guidance contained in an intelligence authorization bill undoubtedly does not have the prescriptive effects of enacted legislation. After the enactment of P.L. 108-487 , the Intelligence Authorization Act for FY2005, on December 23, 2004, until September 2010, the two intelligence committees reported authorization bills (of which some have been passed by the respective chambers and one of which—that for FY2008—passed by both houses only to be vetoed by the President). Each of these bills was accompanied by a report that provided extensive guidance for intelligence agencies and addressed a number of issues that the committees considered important. Such issues included a requirement for Senate confirmation of the Deputy CIA Director as well as the directors of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), and the National Security Agency (NSA); the establishment of a Space Intelligence Center; and providing additional authorities to the DNI along with a provision that requires reports when acquisition costs for intelligence systems pass certain cost growth thresholds. Important to some Members was the inclusion of provisions establishing an Inspector General for the entire intelligence community. The Senate bill for FY2009, S. 2996 , sought to provide the DNI greater flexibility to coordinate the intelligence community response to an emerging threat that "should not depend on the budget cycle and should not be constrained by general limitations in appropriations law (e.g., 31 U.S.C. 1346) or other prohibitions on interagency financing of boards, commissions, councils, committees, or similar groups." These bills did not become law and intelligence programs were instead authorized by defense appropriations legislation between December 2004 and October 2010. In 2009, both the House and Senate intelligence committees reported intelligence authorization bills for FY2010 ( H.R. 2701 and S. 1494 , respectively). Each contained provisions that would require Senate confirmation of additional intelligence leaders and establish a statutory inspector general for the entire intelligence community. However, provisions in H.R. 2701 that would require more extensive notifications of covert actions drew strong objections from the Administration. S. 1494 passed the Senate on September 16, 2009, by a voice vote, but floor consideration of the House bill did not occur. FY2010 intelligence authorization legislation did become law, albeit without specific authorization of intelligence programs; it is discussed below. The need for closer integration of the nation's intelligence effort was a principal finding of the various assessments of the performance of the intelligence community prior to the 9/11 attacks and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The assessments concluded that intelligence agencies had not effectively coordinated the acquisition and dissemination of available intelligence. In response, the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 ( P.L. 108-458 ) established the position of DNI (and the Office of the DNI (ODNI)) with wide-ranging authorities over all intelligence agencies.