‘We Don’t Have the Full Picture’: Lawmakers Feel Left in the Dark Over FISA Reform

As Congress pushes forward on reauthorizing intelligence law, rules around classified information frustrate congressional staffers and lawmakers.

House SCIF
If lawmakers want to be briefed on highly secretive intelligence programs, they must go down to a tiny secure room in the basement of the Capitol. J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Congress’ contentious fight over the future of the foreign surveillance law has left lawmakers accusing intelligence agencies of leaving them in the dark. Congressional staff, too, are frustrated with an inability to help their bosses make sense of complicated legislation.

Members are frozen out by intelligence agencies who don’t fully trust rank-and-file legislators with the nation’s secrets, and internal rules limit legislative staff’s access to highly classified information, lawmakers and aides told NOTUS.

“How am I supposed to advise my boss on what to do? I don’t have the information,” one senior congressional staffer said. “The most ridiculous thing is you have hundreds of thousands of people who have clearances in the executive branch … I don’t see why you can’t have House staff with clearances.”