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Lawmakers question price tag for Pentagon intel shop
Lawmakers say they have serious questions about whether the nation can afford the new intelligence agency being proposed by the Pentagon.
Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Mike Vickers and Defense Intelligence Agency chief Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess unveiled their budget plan for the new Defense Clandestine Service (DCS) during a closed-door hearing Tuesday of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The new office is designed to work with its counterparts at the CIA and across the U.S. intelligence community to gather information on national-security threats beyond the battlefield, according to defense officials.
The department claims the new agency can be fully funded within the five-year budget plan for the Pentagon that Congress is already reviewing.
But lawmakers who attended Tuesday’s session seemed skeptical about the costs of the venture.
"What are the costs and how are they going to [afford it]?" McCain said. "We asked those questions."
The Defense Department has yet to publicly offer specifics on the anticipated total cost of the intelligence shop.
McCain could not go into the specifics of Tuesday's hearing, but did say committee members would be asking for more information on the DCS's total price tag.
Senate defense committee members are scheduled to mark up their version of the fiscal 2013 Pentagon spending bill later this month. The committee's counterparts on the House side plan to have their version of the defense bill wrapped up by Thursday.
Aside from funding issues, the creation of the new Pentagon office could set off a wide-ranging turf battle among the numerous agencies that deal with intelligence.
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) dismissed claims that the DCS will add another layer to what is already a complicated and cumbersome U.S. intelligence apparatus. He said CIA chief David Petraeus and James Clapper, director of the Office of National Intelligence, both signed off on the Pentagon’s plan.
Lieberman, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee and is a member of the Senate Armed Services panel, added that, given the type of threats U.S. forces now face, American forces need all the intelligence they can get.
"It’s all a question of value," Lieberman said, noting that groups like al Qaeda and the Taliban are enemies who "attacks from the shadows" and refuse to differentiate between soldiers and civilians.
