WASHINGTON – Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., Tuesday reacted to the disclosure of the top line figure of the nation’s FY2007 intelligence budget, as required by legislation that passed out of HSGAC and was enacted into law earlier this year. The figure for Fiscal Year 2007 was $43.5 billion. The 9/11 Commission proposed declassifying the figure in its final report in 2004.
“Declassification of the top line of the intelligence budget was a key recommendation of the 9/11 Commission,” Lieberman said. “I pushed for this reform in 2004 during consideration of our intelligence reform legislation, and I am gratified that we won its enactment this year against strong opposition. Transparency in government is essential to ensuring an informed electorate. This disclosure will improve the accountability of the intelligence community to the American public without in any way harming national security.”
Senator Lieberman led Senate efforts earlier this year to enact the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act (H.R. 1), which was signed into law on August 3, 2007. The Act included a provision (section 601) to declassify the top-line budget of the National Intelligence Program after the fiscal years of FY2007 and FY 2008. Lieberman and Senator Susan Collins, R-Me., also spearheaded the passage of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorist Prevention Act of 2004, which enacted the Commission’s major recommendations, including the reorganization of the intelligence community under the leadership of a national director.