Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
Order Code RS21945
September 24, 2004
The U.S. Intelligence Budget:
A Basic Overview
Stephen Daggett
Specialist in National Defense
Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division
Summary
The 9/11 Commission recommended that a new National Intelligence Director
(NID) should have control over personnel and budgets of all agencies that collect and
analyze national foreign intelligence in order to foster more cooperation. This CRS
report describes the intelligence budget and gives rough estimates of amounts for major
components of the budget based on unclassified sources. It also reviews current
procedures for formulating and executing the budget. And it highlights how proposed
legislation addresses the issue. For a more extensive description of the Defense
Department agencies whose budgets are at issue and a discussion of pros and cons of
giving greater authority over them to a National Intelligence Director, see CRS Report
RL32515, Intelligence Community Reorganization: Potential Effects on DOD
Intelligence Agencies, by Richard Best. This report will be updated as events warrant.
The Commission’s recommendation would affect an estimated one-half to two-thirds
of the intelligence budget, the portion devoted to the “National Foreign Intelligence
Program” (NFIP). The other parts of the intelligence budget finance intelligence activities
of the Department of Defense that support tactical military operations, though the
distinction between tactical and national intelligence is often blurry. A major issue in
Congress is how greater centralized authority over the NFIP budget would affect
operations of four large Defense Department agencies funded in large part from NFIP: the
National Reconnaissance Office, the National Security Agency, the National Geo-Spatial
Intelligence Agency, and the Defense Intelligence Agency. These agencies provide
intelligence that supports both national decision-making and military operations.
The Three Major Components of the Intelligence Budget
Since 1995, the U.S. intelligence budget has been divided into three elements:
! The National Foreign Intelligence Program (NFIP), which, in
principle, funds all foreign intelligence and counterintelligence activities
