See also
- Director of National Intelligence
- United States Intelligence Community Oversight
- President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board
The Joint Intelligence Community Council (JICC) assists the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in implementing a joint, unified national intelligence effort to protect national and homeland security and advise the DNI on setting requirements, managing finances, establishing uniform intelligence policies, and monitoring and evaluating performance of the Intelligence Community.
The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 established the Joint Intelligence Community Council as an Executive oversight body to the Intelligence Community. The JICC meets semiannually. To see a copy of the JICC's first meeting in pdf format, click here. [1]
The Director of National Intelligence chairs the Joint Intelligence Community Council. Other members of the oversight body include:
In order to assist the Director of National Intelligence in developing and implementing a joint, unified national intelligence effort to protect national security, the Joint Intelligence Community Council serves two functions. The first function is to advise the DNI on how to most effectively establish requirements, develop budgets, manage finances, and monitor and evaluate the performance of the Intelligence Community. This list is not exhaustive, however, as the DNI may request the JICC for advisement on other matters related to national security. [2]
The second function designated to the Joint Intelligence Community Council to ensure a unified intelligence effort is to ensure the timely execution of programs, policies, and directives established by the chairman, the DNI. [2]
The Director of National Intelligence (Chairman of the JICC) presents his/her advice and opinions gathered from the advice and opinions of the JICC to the president and National Security Council. If a dissenting member of the JICC disagrees with, or wishes to add to, the advice and opinions of the chairman presented to the president and the National Security Council, the dissenting member may submit to the chairman his/her opinions. If such a situation occurs, the chairman must present the advice or opinions of the dissenting member at the same time as the chairman presents his/hers to the president and the National Security Council. As a result, the chairman must establish procedures to ensure that the presentation of the advice of the chairman to the president and the National Security Council is not unduly delayed due to the submission of dissenting opinions. [3]
All members of the Joint Intelligence Community Council may present any recommendations relating to the Intelligence Community to Congress as the presenter considers appropriate. [2]
According to Tom Ridge, former Secretary of Homeland Security, the Joint Intelligence Community Council is critical to the Intelligence Community. The Chairman of the JICC reports to the President as the head of the Intelligence Community. The JICC is critical to ensuring that the chairman provides sound advice to the President and the National Security Council. Additionally, the JICC provides each of its members the opportunity to shape intelligence priorities. [4]
Critics of the effectiveness of the Joint Intelligence Community Council offer two key criticisms. First, the members of the JICC, other than the chairman, are unlikely to have the time to devote to intelligence management issues. In addition to serving on the oversight body examining intelligence, members of the JICC are also responsible for managing the Department of State, Department of the Treasury, Department of Defense, Department of Justice, etc. The second criticism against the effectiveness of the JICC is the lack of power yielded to the chairman. In addition to the rights of all JICC member to convey their view to the President, all of the members, aside from the chairman, have additional avenues to speak to the President separate from the JICC. This current structure challenges the power and decisions of the chairman. [5]
The United States National Security Council (NSC) is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for consideration of national security, military, and foreign policy matters. Based in the White House, it is part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, and composed of senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is the body of the most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense, that advises the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council and the National Security Council on military matters. The composition of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is defined by statute and consists of a chairman (CJCS), a vice chairman (VJCS), the service chiefs of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the chief of the National Guard Bureau. Each of the individual service chiefs, outside their JCS obligations, work directly under the secretaries of their respective military departments, e.g. the secretary of the Army, the secretary of the Navy, and the secretary of the Air Force.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) is the presiding officer of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The chairman is the highest-ranking and most senior military officer in the United States Armed Forces and the principal military advisor to the president, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council, and the secretary of defense. While the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff outranks all other commissioned officers, the chairman is prohibited by law from having operational command authority over the armed forces; however, the chairman does assist the president and the secretary of defense in exercising their command functions.
The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) is a senior, cabinet-level United States government official, required by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to serve as executive head of the United States Intelligence Community (IC) and to direct and oversee the National Intelligence Program (NIP). The DNI also serves, upon invitation, as an advisor to the President of the United States, the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council on all intelligence matters. The DNI, supported by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), produces the President's Daily Brief (PDB), a top-secret document including intelligence from all IC agencies, handed each morning to the President of the United States.
Mike McConnell is a former vice admiral in the United States Navy. During his naval career he served as Director of the National Security Agency from 1992 to 1996. His civilian career includes serving as the United States Director of National Intelligence from 20 February 2007 to 27 January 2009 during the Bush administration and also seven days of the Obama administration. He is currently Vice Chairman at Booz Allen Hamilton.
The United States Intelligence Community (IC) is a group of separate United States government intelligence agencies and subordinate organizations that work both separately and collectively to conduct intelligence activities which support the foreign policy and national security of the United States. Member organizations of the IC include intelligence agencies, military intelligence, and civilian intelligence and analysis offices within federal executive departments.
The Australian Intelligence Community (AIC) and the National Intelligence Community (NIC) or National Security Community of the Australian Government are the collectives of statutory intelligence agencies, policy departments, and other government agencies concerned with protecting and advancing the national security and national interests of the Commonwealth of Australia. The intelligence and security agencies of the Australian Government have evolved since the Second World War and the Cold War and saw transformation and expansion during the Global War on Terrorism with military deployments in Afghanistan, Iraq and against ISIS in Syria. Key international and national security issues for the Australian Intelligence Community include terrorism and violent extremism, cybersecurity, transnational crime, the rise of China, and Pacific regional security.
The National Intelligence Board (NIB), formerly the National Foreign Intelligence Board and before that the United States Intelligence Board is a body of senior U.S. Intelligence Community leaders currently led by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The Board is tasked with reviewing and approving National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs).
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) is an independent agency within the executive branch of the United States government, established by Congress in 2004 to advise the President and other senior executive branch officials to ensure that concerns with respect to privacy and civil liberties in the United States are appropriately considered in the development and implementation of all laws, regulations, and executive branch policies related to terrorism.
The under secretary of defense for intelligence and security or USD(I&S) is a high-ranking civilian position in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) that acts as the principal civilian advisor and deputy to the secretary of defense (SecDef) and deputy secretary of defense (DepSecDef) on matters relating to military intelligence and security. The under secretary is appointed as a civilian by the president and confirmed by the Senate to serve at the pleasure of the president.
The United States Department of Defense is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national security and the United States Armed Forces. The DOD is the largest employer in the world, with over 1.4 million active-duty service members as of 2021. More employees include over 826,000 National Guard and reservists from the armed forces, and over 732,000 civilians bringing the total to over 2.8 million employees. Headquartered at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., the DoD's stated mission is to provide "the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security".
The Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) is a non-profit, nonpartisan 501(c)(6) professional organization for public and private sector members of the United States Intelligence Community, based in Arlington, Virginia.
The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) is a council in the Executive Branch of the United States. It is designed to coordinate science and technology policy across the branches of federal government.
Executive oversight of United States covert operations has been carried out by a series of sub-committees of the National Security Council (NSC).
United States Intelligence Community Oversight duties are shared by both the executive and legislative branches of the government. Oversight, in this case, is the supervision of intelligence agencies, and making them accountable for their actions. Generally oversight bodies look at the following general issues: following policymaker needs, the quality of analysis, operations, and legality of actions.
The United States intelligence budget comprises all the funding for the 16 agencies of the United States Intelligence Community. These agencies and other programs fit into one of the intelligence budget's two components, the National Intelligence Program (NIP) and the Military Intelligence Program (MIP). As with other parts of the federal budget, the US intelligence budget runs according to the Fiscal year (FY), not the calendar year. Before government finances are spent on intelligence, the funds must first be authorized and appropriated by committees in both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate.
The Alabama Department of Homeland Security is a state agency with the executive branch of the Alabama State government designed to develop, coordinate, and implement of a state policy to secure the State of Alabama from terrorist threat or attack. It was established by the Alabama Homeland Security Act of 2003 which was signed on June 18, 2003 by Governor Bob Riley. The Director of the Alabama Department of Homeland Security is Jay Moseley.
The Boren-McCurdy intelligence reform proposals were two legislative proposals from Senator David Boren and Representative Dave McCurdy in 1992. Both pieces of legislation proposed the creation of a National Intelligence Director. Neither bill passed into law.
The United States Department of Defense (DoD) has a complex organizational structure. It includes the Army, Navy, the Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force, the Unified combatant commands, U.S. elements of multinational commands, as well as non-combat agencies such as the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency. The DoD's annual budget was roughly US$496.1 billion in 2015. This figure is the base amount and does not include the $64.3 billion spent on "War/Non-War Supplementals". Including those items brings the total to $560.6 billion for 2015.
The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 is a U.S. public law that authorizes appropriations for fiscal year 2014 for intelligence activities of the U.S. government. The law authorizes there to be funding for intelligence agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency or the National Security Agency, but a separate appropriations bill would also have to pass in order for those agencies to receive any money.
