The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (sometimes referred to as SSCI) is dedicated to overseeing the United States Intelligence Community—the agencies and bureaus of the Federal government of the United States who provide information and analysis for leaders of the executive and legislative branches. The Committee was established in 1976 by the 94th Congress.1 The Committee is "select" in that membership is temporary and rotated among members of the chamber. Two seats on the Committee - one from the majority party and one from the minority - are reserved for members of the standing committees on Appropriations, Armed Services, Foreign Relations, and Judiciary.2
In a March 6, 2008 letter to the Senate leadership, 14 of the 15 current members of the Committee proposed the creation of a new Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Intelligence to prepare the annual intelligence budget.3 The proposed Subcommittee, on which members of the Intelligence Committee would be heavily represented, would increase the Committee’s influence and leverage over executive branch intelligence agencies, and require continuing disclosure of the annual budget for the National Intelligence Program. The proposal has been opposed by the leadership of the Senate Appropriations Committee, however.4
Former Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet was staff director of the committee when David Boren of Oklahoma was its chairman. The committee was the center of much controversy and contentiousness during the run-up to the war in Iraq in 2002 and 2003, when chairmanship of the committee changed hands following the November, 2002 election. Among the committee staff members at that time were:
Pete Dorn, Professional Staff Member; Jim Hensler, Deputy Staff Director; Vicki Divoll, General Counsel; Steven Abram Cash, Professional Staff Member & Counsel; and Alfred Cumming, Minority Staff Director.
