Tracing the Rise and Fall of Intelligence Spending

As Portrayed in Official Government Publications

U.S. intelligence agencies long argued that public disclosure of intelligence budget appropriations would "damage national security" and jeopardize "intelligence sources and methods." [1] This proposition has been disputed for decades by critics in Congress and elsewhere, and a growing number of other nations now routinely publish their intelligence spending levels as an act of democratic accountability. [2]

In any case, even under the prevailing secrecy policy, a good deal of information about intelligence spending could be discerned from official government sources.

The changes in the total annual budget for the former National Foreign Intelligence Program (which encompassed the budgets of all national-level intelligence agencies such as CIA, NRO, NSA, DIA, NGA, etc.) from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s are evident from this bar chart published by Congress in 1993 [3]:

Remarkably, total intelligence funding grew by 125 percent in real (constant dollar) terms from 1980 to 1989, as noted by the Aspin-Brown Commission on intelligence. [4] It declined thereafter, but by the mid-1990s it still remained at a level 80 percent higher than the 1980 figure:

In response to Freedom of Information Act litigation [5], the Director of Central Intelligence declassified the total intelligence budget for fiscal year 1997: $26.6 billion.

The DCI again declassified the total intelligence budget for fiscal year 1998: $26.7 billion [6].

No identifiable damage to national security or intelligence methods ensued as a result of these official disclosures. Yet officials refused, with congressional acquiescence, to formally release subsequent or prior intelligence budget totals until the FY 2007 budget for the National Intelligence Program -- $43.5 billion -- was disclosed in October 2007.

The upward trend in intelligence spending since 9/11 is clear from this chart produced by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and published by the Congressional Joint Inquiry into September 11 [7]:

Notes

1. See, for example, the April 2003 statement of Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet, in which he declared that disclosure of a single aggregate number for all intelligence spending for Fiscal Year 2002 posed an unacceptable risk to national security.

2. See, for example, official information on intelligence spending in the United Kingdom here. Several other countries disclose intelligence spending levels including Canada, the Netherlands, and others.

3. Based on unclassified data (in constant dollars) provided by the DCI and published in House Report 103-254, report of the House Appropriations Committee on Department of Defense Appropriations Bill, 1994, at page 14.

4. Preparing for the 21st Century: An Appraisal of U.S. Intelligence, report of the Commission on the Roles and Capabilities of the United States Intelligence Community, March 1, 1996, chapter 13 (available here).

5. The FOIA lawsuit was brought by the Federation of American Scientists with the assistance of Kate Martin of the Center for National Security Studies. For more information, see here.

6. A copy of the CIA statement announcing the disclosure is here.

7. Report of the Joint Inquiry into the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, December 2002, at page 256.

Related Resources

CIA Budget Documents for FY 1955, correspondence between CIA and the Senate Appropriations Committee, from the papers of Sen. Styles Bridges (courtesy of Prof. David Barrett, Villanova University)

CIA: Location of Budgeted Funds, Fiscal Year 1953, from the papers of Rep. George Mahon (courtesy of Prof. David Barrett, Villanova University)

DIA and NSA Appropriations, Fiscal Year 1972, from the papers of Rep. George Mahon (courtesy of Prof. David Barrett, Villanova University)