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U.S. intelligence agencies 'wasted' billions
Senator faults mismanagement
**FILE** Dennis Blair (Associated Press)By Shaun Waterman
-
The Washington Times
8:07 p.m., Tuesday, October 12, 2010
you think the federal judge's order to end enforcement
U.S. intelligence agencies have wasted many billions of dollars by mismanaging secret, high-technology programs, the deputy chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence says.
"The American public would be outraged if they knew," Sen. Christopher S. Bond, Missouri Republican, told The Washington Times. "Billions and billions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted."
Mr. Bond said he was unable to provide details or exact figures because the programs are classified. "I wish I could, but I can't," he said, adding that "many billions of dollars" were wasted on "just one program" that had been canceled recently.
In 2009, retired Navy Adm. Dennis C. Blair, then-director of national intelligence, revealed for the first time that U.S. spending on military and civilian intelligence programs totaled about $75 billion.
Past intelligence acquisitions that became public after spending for them had run out of control include spy-satellite programs, such as the National Reconnaissance Office's Future Imagery Architecture, which is widely regarded as the most costly failure in U.S. intelligence, and computer technology, such as the National Security Agency's Trailblazer, which officials publicly admitted in 2005 was several hundred million dollars over budget and several years behind schedule.
Mr. Bond said provisions in the new intelligence spending law signed by President Obama last week were designed to improve reporting to Congress about secret spending programs when costs start to rise. "We wanted to make sure that we've got a fail-safe in the law should some of these programs go wrong in the future," he said.
The long-delayed Fiscal Year 2010 Intelligence Authorization Act contains language modeled on the 1982 Nunn-McCurdy defense spending bill, named for then-Sen. Sam Nunn, Georgia Democrat, and then-Rep. Dave McCurdy, Oklahoma Democrat. A new provision states that the director of national intelligence (DNI) has to report to Congress within 45 days about any major programs experiencing "significant cost growth" — a rise of 15 percent or more from the original cost estimate.
If the costs rise by more than 25 percent — "critical cost growth" — the DNI has to cancel the program or explain to Congress why it is essential to national security, why there are no cheaper alternatives and why the program is more important than any others that might have to be cut to accommodate the growing costs.
The new provision was greeted with cautious optimism by those who track defense and intelligence spending.
"It's a good way of systematically drawing the attention of lawmakers" to problematic programs, said John Pike of the Virginia-based think tank GlobalSecurity.org.
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Senator faults mismanagement
**FILE** Dennis Blair (Associated Press)By Shaun Waterman-
The Washington Times
8:07 p.m., Tuesday, October 12, 2010
you think the federal judge's order to end enforcement
U.S. intelligence agencies have wasted many billions of dollars by mismanaging secret, high-technology programs, the deputy chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence says.
"The American public would be outraged if they knew," Sen. Christopher S. Bond, Missouri Republican, told The Washington Times. "Billions and billions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted."
Mr. Bond said he was unable to provide details or exact figures because the programs are classified. "I wish I could, but I can't," he said, adding that "many billions of dollars" were wasted on "just one program" that had been canceled recently.
In 2009, retired Navy Adm. Dennis C. Blair, then-director of national intelligence, revealed for the first time that U.S. spending on military and civilian intelligence programs totaled about $75 billion.
Past intelligence acquisitions that became public after spending for them had run out of control include spy-satellite programs, such as the National Reconnaissance Office's Future Imagery Architecture, which is widely regarded as the most costly failure in U.S. intelligence, and computer technology, such as the National Security Agency's Trailblazer, which officials publicly admitted in 2005 was several hundred million dollars over budget and several years behind schedule.
Mr. Bond said provisions in the new intelligence spending law signed by President Obama last week were designed to improve reporting to Congress about secret spending programs when costs start to rise. "We wanted to make sure that we've got a fail-safe in the law should some of these programs go wrong in the future," he said.
The long-delayed Fiscal Year 2010 Intelligence Authorization Act contains language modeled on the 1982 Nunn-McCurdy defense spending bill, named for then-Sen. Sam Nunn, Georgia Democrat, and then-Rep. Dave McCurdy, Oklahoma Democrat. A new provision states that the director of national intelligence (DNI) has to report to Congress within 45 days about any major programs experiencing "significant cost growth" — a rise of 15 percent or more from the original cost estimate.
If the costs rise by more than 25 percent — "critical cost growth" — the DNI has to cancel the program or explain to Congress why it is essential to national security, why there are no cheaper alternatives and why the program is more important than any others that might have to be cut to accommodate the growing costs.
The new provision was greeted with cautious optimism by those who track defense and intelligence spending.
"It's a good way of systematically drawing the attention of lawmakers" to problematic programs, said John Pike of the Virginia-based think tank GlobalSecurity.org.
Story Continues →
© Copyright 2010 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
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