1
Reportedly “furious” about what he apparently believed to be unauthorized disclosures of classified
information by Congress, President Bush on Oct. 5, 2001, ordered that the provision of classified
information and sensitive law enforcement information be restricted to the Republican and
Democratic leaders of both the Senate and House, and to the chairmen and ranking members of the
two congressional intelligence committees. Until the President issued his order, and in keeping with
prior practice, all Members of the intelligence committees had access to most such information. Bush
agreed to rescind his order after several days, following a personal telephone conversation between
the President and Sen. Bob Graham, then-chairman of the Senate’s intelligence committee, and after
negotiations between White House staff and Graham. See Bob Woodward, Bush at War, pp. 198-
199. (Simon and Schuster).
2
The Senate established its intelligence oversight committee, the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence (SSCI), in May 1976. The House of Representatives followed suit in July 1977, creating
the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI).
Congressional Research Service Washington, D.C. 20540-7000
Memorandum December 14, 2005
TO: Sen. Dianne Feinstein
FROM: Alfred Cumming
Specialist in Intelligence and National Security
Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade Division
SUBJECT: Congress as a Consumer of Intelligence Information
This responds to your request for a discussion of Congress and its role as a consumer
of national intelligence, and for a listing and a description of some of the U.S. Intelligence
Community’s principal intelligence products, including an identification of those which the
executive branch routinely shares with Congress, and those which it does not.
Limitations on Congressional Access to Certain National
Intelligence
By virtue of his constitutional role as commander-and-in-chief and head of the
executive branch, the President has access to all national intelligence collected, analyzed and
produced by the Intelligence Community. The President’s position also affords him the
authority – which, at certain times, has been aggressively asserted
1
– to restrict the flow of
intelligence information to Congress and its two intelligence committees, which are charged
with providing legislative oversight of the Intelligence Community.
2
As a result, the
President, and a small number of presidentially-designated Cabinet-level officials, including
