DNI to disclose total intelligence budget

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- The director of national intelligence says the total size of the current classified U.S. intelligence budget will be disclosed for the first time within a week.

“We will comply with the law,” spokeswoman Vanee Vines told United Press International.

In July, despite White House objections, Congress passed an intelligence budget disclosure requirement into law as part of a measure implementing some of the remaining recommendations of the Sept. 11 Commission.

A Statement of Administration Policy complained that revealing the so-called top-line budget number would "provide significant intelligence to America’s adversaries and could cause damage to the national security interests of the United States."

Bush signed the bill Aug. 3, including section 601, which reads: "Not later than 30 days after the end of each fiscal year beginning with fiscal year 2007, the director of national intelligence shall disclose to the public the aggregate amount of funds appropriated by Congress for the National Intelligence Program for such fiscal year."

Crucially, since the intelligence reform of 2004, the National Intelligence Program includes most of the spending by the large agencies and services inside the Department of Defense.

But the bill also says that, starting in 2009, the president can waive the disclosure requirement on national security grounds.

The Federation of American Scientists’ government transparency advocate Steven Aftergood has called top-line declassification “the Great White Whale” of secrecy policy.

The federation forced the first ever official disclosure of the aggregate intelligence budget 10 years ago, after the Clinton administration declined to contest a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The intelligence budget for Fiscal Year 1997 was $26.6 billion. The following year, it was $26.7 billion, but the administration declined to disclose it after that.