Jay Rockefeller: “For 4 years the Central Intelligence Agency's program was kept from the full membership of the Senate and House…”

“For 4 years the Central Intelligence Agency's program was kept from the full membership of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees. For 4 years the CIA imprisoned and interrogated suspected terrorists at secret black sites under a policy that prevented Congress from not only knowing about the program but from acting on it and regulating it. For 4 years, the White House refused to brief Intelligence Committee members about the program's legal business and operations, as is required by law. For 4 years, the members of the Senate and the House Intelligence Committees, whose duty it is to authorize the funding of every CIA program, were kept in the dark by an administration which ignored the legal requirement to keep the Congress fully and currently informed on all intelligence activities. The amendment I have offered reverses the executive branch's 4-year policy of indifference toward Congress. My amendment corrects a serious omission in the pending bill: the need for Congress to reassert its fundamental right to understand the intelligence activities it authorizes and funds.”