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Bush agrees to full NSA oversight by Congress David Morgan / Reuters | May 17 2006 The White House, in an abrupt reversal, will allow the full Senate and House of Representatives intelligence committees to review President George W. Bush's domestic spying program, congressional officials said on Tuesday. Two days before the program was expected to dominate Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden's Senate confirmation hearing as CIA director, the Republican chairmen of the Senate and House panels said separately that Bush had agreed to allow full committee oversight of his Terrorist Surveillance Program. The program, which allows the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on the international phone calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens without first obtaining warrants, has stirred an outcry in Congress among lawmakers who believe Bush may have overstepped his constitutional authority. Up to now, the White House has sought to avoid full committee oversight by limiting briefings to subcommittees from each panel. Initially, the administration shared program details only with the chairmen and vice chairmen of the committees and party leaders in the House and Senate. "It became apparent that in order to have a fully informed confirmation hearing, all members of my committee needed to know the full width and breadth of the president's program," Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, who heads the 15-member Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a statement. The first full Senate committee briefing was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. CONFIRMATION HEARING Hayden, who was the program's architect as NSA director from 1999 to 2005, was expected to face a blizzard of questions on NSA spying at a Thursday Senate confirmation hearing. Republican and Democratic senators have said his confirmation would depend on how detailed his answers would be. A congressional aide who deals with intelligence matters said the change in policy on NSA oversight would also allow Hayden to speak about the program during the classified segment of his confirmation hearing before Roberts' committee. The aide also predicted that broader congressional oversight could pave the way for bringing the NSA program under federal law, a proposal that Hayden has signaled his possible support for during private meetings with members of Congress. Meanwhile, Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said full oversight would eliminate what he called politically driven rumors. "By briefing the full committee on this program, it is my hope that we can put an end to the politics surrounding this issue and get back to the serious business of protecting our national security," Hoekstra said in a separate statement. In addition to constitutional concerns, critics say the program violates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, a 1978 law requiring court warrants for all intelligence-related eavesdropping inside the United States. Bush has defended the program by saying the intelligence activities he has authored are lawful and are needed to protect Americans from further harm after the September 11 attacks. In a report that raised hackles in Congress further last week, USA Today newspaper said the NSA has also assembled a database containing phone records of millions of Americans that can be examined for patterns of potential terrorist activity. ---------------------------------------------------
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