The CIA Threatens to Shift Budget to New Office of National Cybr Director
The CIA is in danger of losing 90% of its budget, according to a letter from its director to the agency’s employees. The prospect is real enough that it made its way into an article in the New York Times. But the proposal is a bluff, for now. That’s because the money would be shifted to the new Office of National Cyber Director. The ONCD is a position created in the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act. The position has yet to be filled by President Biden and the Senate has yet to confirm his nomination to the post. The ONCD is supposed to help the country prepare for, and respond to, cyber attacks. It’s an important job, to be sure. But the CIA’s responsibilities are much broader. The agency is supposed to gather intelligence on countries hostile to the U.S. and run operations to help the U.S. and its allies in the world. The CIA is the government’s only agency that is allowed to conduct covert actions, like assassinations.
The agency’s director, David Cohen, decided to send the letter to agency employees after the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to defund the CIA’s covert action programs in the wake of a disastrous operation in the Philippines. But that proposal is unlikely to become law. The agency’s covert action programs are known as Title 50 programs, because they are authorized by Title 50 of the U.S. Code. That’s the same part of the law that created the CIA. And that part of the law is not subject to the Senate’s Byrd Rule. The Byrd Rule is the reason why Senate Democrats are having such a hard time passing parts of President Biden’s agenda. The rule says that if a provision of a bill is not related to the bill’s budget, it can be stricken if it is opposed by even a single senator. That means that the Senate’s Democrats can only spend money on things that are directly related to the budget, like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the like. As a result, the Senate’s Democrats can’t spend money on things like President Biden’s climate plan, or his new child care program, or his plan to reduce drug prices. And they also can’t spend money on things that are not in the budget, like the CIA’s covert action programs. But things that are in the budget can be authorized by a simple majority of the Senate. That’s why Democrats are having no trouble spending money on President Biden’s new drug plan. And it’s why the proposal to cut the CIA’s budget is unlikely to become law anytime soon.
For now, the ONCD is an empty office. In fact, it doesn’t even have its own office. Cohen and his staff have been assigned to work out of a space in the White House’s old executive office building. The CIA’s funding was allocated in the 2022 Intelligence Authorization Act, which is now being considered by the Senate. The House has already passed its version of the bill. The Senate’s version of the bill does not include the defunding proposal. The final version of the bill will have to be approved by the full Senate and the full House before it becomes law. And then, of course, it would have to be signed by President Biden. And the president is unlikely to risk defunding the CIA’s covert action programs by vetoing the bill. The CIA does not disclose its budget. But it has been estimated to be about $15 billion a year. That’s about 1.5% of the federal government’s annual discretionary spending. And that’s about 0.3% of the federal government’s annual spending. The ONCD’s funding would be about $14 billion, or about $1 billion less than the CIA’s current budget.
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David Cohen, the director of the CIA, decided to send the letter to agency employees after the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to defund the CIA’s covert action programs in the wake of a disastrous operation in the Philippines. But that proposal is unlikely to become law. The agency’s covert action programs are known as Title 50 programs, because they are authorized by Title 50 of the U.S. Code. That’s the same part of the law that created the CIA. And that part of the law is not subject to the Senate’s Byrd Rule. The Byrd Rule is the reason why Senate Democrats are having such a hard time passing parts of President Biden’s agenda. The rule says that if a provision of a bill is not related to the bill’s budget, it can be stricken if it is opposed by even a single senator. That means that the Senate’s Democrats can only spend money on things that are directly related to the budget, like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the like. As a result, the Senate’s Democrats can’t spend money on things like President
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