Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI) and Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Ranking Member of the House Homeland Security Committee, today introduced the Intelligence Community Audit of 2006 which would provide the U.S. Comptroller General and head of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) authority to audit and evaluate the financial transactions and activities of the intelligence community, including intelligence sources and methods or covert actions.

This legislation, cosponsored by Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), respectively, would also prescribe the security procedures that GAO must follow in conducting audits for congressional intelligence oversight committees.

"The need for greater oversight and availability of information to appropriate congressional committees is not new. But in this era of terrorism, lack of proper oversight can result in terrible consequences," Senator Akaka said.

With the passage of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, the federal government now encompasses 19 distinct components that have intelligence responsibilities. These components range from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to the Department of Homeland Security to the Department of Treasury. Ensuring they are cooperating and performing their missions effectively is critical to our national security and winning the war on terrorism.

This risk to oversight became apparent earlier this year shortly after GAO released a report on federal government policies relating to the sharing of terrorism-related and sensitive but unclassified (SBU) information (GAO-06-385). Specifically, the DNI declined to comment on a draft version of the report because it considered GAO's work in this non-sensitive area as a "review of intelligence activities" that was "beyond GAO's purview."

"If the GAO had been able to conduct basic auditing functions of the intelligence community, perhaps some of the problems, such as sharing of information with state and local law enforcement officials and transportation security that were so clearly exposed following the terrorist attacks in September 2001 would have been resolved," stated Senator Akaka. "It is extraordinary that five years after 9-11 the same problems persist."

Congressman Thompson added, "I was greatly disturbed by the DNI's refusal to contribute its fair share to the GAO report. This bill makes clear that the DNI cannot evade Congressional oversight by lumping the sharing of unclassified information and other non-sensitive matters together with the kinds of intelligence activities that understandably must be held to a stricter standard."

Representative Lofgren agreed that the DNI's position was untenable. "The continuing lack of government-wide information sharing guidelines remains a serious challenge that must be addressed immediately," she noted. "The DNI's inappropriate refusal to cooperate with GAO seriously impairs our ability to conduct effective oversight of executive branch information sharing activities. This legislation will help avoid these unfortunate incidents in the future."