Bill would require more intel oversight

WASHINGTON, June 30 (UPI) -- A U.S. House panel has approved legislation that would strengthen congressional oversight of delicate intelligence matters, including covert operations.

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, in language approved last week in the 2010 Intelligence Authorization Act, proposed eliminating provisions allowing a president to limit disclosure of sensitive intelligence activities to House and Senate majority and minority leaders, and the chairmen and ranking minority members of the chambers' intelligence committees, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Instead, the language would give intelligence committees in the House and Senate the authority to limit intelligence briefings to its members. In addition, it would require the president to provide "general information" on certain aspects of covert operations to congressional overseers, as well as disclose if an activity could significantly damage diplomatic relations of the United States, the newspaper said.

The legislative changes were made in reaction to policies of the former President George W. Bush administration in which harsh interrogation tactics were reported to only the designated leadership, the so-called Gang of Eight, and sometimes just the ranking intelligence panel members, the Post said.

The language also would require the president to maintain a record of who was informed and what they were told -- a reaction to the dispute that arose over whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California may have been told by the CIA about harsh interrogations when she was briefed in September 2002, the newspaper said.

Floor debate hasn't been scheduled.