Richard Shelby: “I rise to oppose the Torricelli amendment. I oppose the public disclosure of the overall level of intelligence funding…”

“I rise to oppose the Torricelli amendment. I oppose the public disclosure of the overall level of intelligence funding as proposed by the amendment offered by the Senator from New Jersey. Mr. President, it does not, I repeat, it does not take an act of Congress to declassify the top line of the intelligence budget as this amendment would do if adopted. The President of the United States has always had and has today the authority to disclose this figure and has always chosen to keep it classified. Determining classification is the responsibility and is the duty of the Chief Executive of the United States, the President, who is also, as we know, the Commander in Chief. Presidents Truman through Clinton have determined this figure is to remain classified, and I believe we should not overrule that judgment. The purpose of maintaining a premier intelligence capability is to save lives and to prevent and, if we get in them, win wars. The foundation of an effective intelligence capability, as we all know, is secrecy. Secrecy protects not only the information that we collect, but also the brave people that put themselves at risk to do the collection of it. We are an open and a free society that generally abhors secret dealings by our Government. But in the case of intelligence collection and analysis, secrecy, I believe, is absolutely necessary.”