INTELLIGENCE/POLITICS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Senior administration officials said a legislative provision granting the Trump administration broad latitude to fund intelligence programs wasn’t devised as a way for the White House to bypass Congress, in response concerns from senators about its purpose.
According to officials on Capitol Hill and in the administration, the intelligence provision was inserted at the request of the administration into a stopgap spending bill signed by the president this week, because Congress hadn’t passed a broader intelligence authorization for the current fiscal year.
But the measure caused enough bipartisan alarm in the Senate that two senators responsible for intelligence oversight made a last-ditch plea to remove it, arguing it could hinder congressional supervision of intelligence programs and give too much discretion to the administration to create spy programs or shift spying activities to private contractors…
The waiver applies to missile defense money the administration requested last year in response to rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Administration officials say it is their understanding the waiver is permanent until explicitly repealed by Congress—or until the $4 billion runs out…
Administration officials say the funds will be spent on ground-based interceptor missiles meant to counter escalating threats on the Korean Peninsula, as well as to fund repairs to two guided-missile destroyers damaged in collisions last year, according to a senior administration official. They say there is no intention to shift those funds to intelligence programs that haven’t been specifically authorized, nor to pay private contractors.”
-Byron Tau, “Trump Administration Says Intelligence Provision Isn’t Meant to Circumvent Congress,” The Wall Street Journal online, Jan. 24, 2018 01:07pm