WASHINGTON, March 2 (UPI) -- The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Thursday agreed to a program of oversight for the National Security Agency's program of warrantless counter-terrorist surveillance, saying a small group of members, perhaps an existing subcommittee, would be briefed on the controversial wiretapping effort.
The committee also agreed to launch an inquiry into the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, the law governing the use of wiretapping and other forms of electronic surveillance for national security purposes inside the United States, with an eye to reforming it.
"We will work with the White House to have the members ... fully briefed on the NSA program to expand and increase oversight of this critical terrorism prevention tool," said committee Chairman Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich.
The agreement is the latest step in the complicated, slow-motion foxtrot being danced between the executive and legislative branches of government about the program -- under which phone calls and other electronic communications into or out of the United States can be monitored without a warrant if one of the participants is thought to be a member of al-Qaida or an affiliated terror group.
Since the program was revealed by the New York Times in December, lawmakers have pushed for more access to information about it, and formulated several legislative proposals that are currently jockeying for position. At the other end of Pennsylvania Ave., a cautious administration has tried to limit both the number of lawmakers briefed about the surveillance and its own political exposure to charges that it is acting without legally sufficient congressional authorization or oversight.
A White House official authorized to speak to the media said the administration had been "for several weeks ... committed to legislation and to briefing more members (of Congress) into the program ... to ensure reasonable oversight that allows the program to operate effectively and maintain its secrecy."
But the official stressed that no deal had been done as yet. "We have not committed to any particular idea or legislative proposal... We are actively discussing the matter with Congress."
In an interview with United Press International, Hoekstra acknowledged that the modalities of the oversight arrangement had yet to be worked out, but he said that the administration had agreed in principle to expand full briefings on the NSA program beyond the so-called Gang of Eight -- the leaders of both parties in the House and Senate and the chairmen and ranking members of the intelligence committees of both chambers.
"The only question open is how big the group (of members being briefed) will be, and how it will be made up," Hoekstra said, adding that the committee might use one of its existing subcommittees, or might establish a new subcommittee.
Committee officials said that at least two subcommittees, the one on technical and tactical intelligence and the one on oversight, had a claim to jurisdiction over the issue.
Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., chairwoman of the tactical and technical collection subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over the NSA's eavesdropping activities, welcomed the deal, which was worked out in private between Hoekstra and ranking Democrat Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., and unveiled to committee members at Thursday's business meeting.
"Effective oversight starts with the facts," she said in a statement. "We'll continue working to ask serious questions and gather information."
Hoekstra said that the exact shape of the final oversight mechanism might depend -- in part -- on the outcome of negotiations in the Senate.
One proposal discussed there would create a special bicameral panel to oversee the program.
House staffers played down the chances of a joint arrangement with the Senate, and Hoekstra said only that whatever deal was finally reached with the administration, oversight would have to be "balanced" between the two chambers.
Democrats said they would continue to push for wider oversight of the program. Harman called Thursday's deal "progress," but said she continued to "believe that we will still need a full and complete briefing for the entire committee on operational details."
Since its inception in October 2001, the NSA program -- which leading Democrats have fretted is illegal -- was briefed only to the Gang of Eight until last month.
Following congressional pressure, the administration held briefings for both intelligence committees in mid-February, but some lawmakers said afterwards they still had unanswered questions.
Hoekstra said he would have preferred that oversight be conducted by the whole committee. "I'd prefer a larger group," he said, adding "I understand (the administration's) desire to maintain a very close hold on information about the program.
"I can live with a bigger group that is smaller than the whole committee," he said.
He said the oversight proposal went hand-in-hand with the plans to re-write the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA.
Administration officials have said that the president's decision to authorize the program outside FISA was driven in part by the fact that the legislation has kept pace neither with developments in technology nor with the changing character of the threats facing the United States.
"FISA needs to be modernized," Hoekstra said.
He said the committee was launching a three stage information-gathering exercise about "how, in practice, FISA works or doesn't work."
A letter with 27 questions for the Justice Department has already been delivered; members will attend a closed-door briefing from officials scheduled for next week; and the process will finish with a public hearing to air the issues.
Staffers said it was looking more and more likely that an amended FISA would become the vehicle for whatever legislative changes were necessary to bring the program within the law.
Hoekstra said that he and Harman "look at this (question of FISA) in very different ways."
Harman -- who as one of the Gang of Eight had been briefed about the program before it became public -- said last month that, having been able to explore for the first time the legal context for the program, she believed that it could be executed under the authorities that FISA already granted the executive.
Hoekstra and others have said that FISA needs to be amended, and suggested that there are broader issues that a re-write of the law might address.
One GOP House staffer familiar with the committee's plans suggested that the review would be very comprehensive.
"The (NSA Program) is just a piece of the whole as far as the FISA review is concerned. If there are other matters that need to be taken into account, we will cover them," the staffer said.
