National Intelligence: A $43.5-billion year

by Mark Silva, and updated by Siobhan Gorman

Federal law requires Mike O'Connell, the director of national intelligence, to disclose the total amount of money appropriated by Congress for the National Intelligence Progam no more than 30 days after the fiscal year's end.

So McConnell, 30 days out from FY 2007, is reporting in:

$43.5 billion.

"Any and all subsidiary information concerning the intelligence budget, whether the information concerns particular intelligence agencies or particular intelligence programs, will not be disclosed,'' the Office of Director of National Intelligence reports this morning. "Beyond the disclosure of the top line figure, there will be no other disclosures of currently classified budget information because such disclosures could harm national security.''

If they told you, they'd have to -- you know... (DNI McConnell, above.)

The figure is nearly the same number that senior intelligence official Mary Margaret Graham accidentally blurted out two years ago at an intelligence conference open to the public.

After three decades of fighting off pressures from lawmakers to disclose the intelligence budget, the administration finally relented this year when Congress slipped a provision into security legislation requiring the government to state the overall national spending on intelligence.

Another $10 billion or so is thought to be spent on tactical military intelligence, though the actual number remains classified.

Presidents in both political parties have long opposed making any budget figures public, arguing that such disclosures can endanger national security. Advocates for openness in government, including some lawmakers in both parties, have said that intelligence agencies hide behind secret budget numbers to avoid accountability.

But the budget figure, itself, is not as important as the statement its release makes about the government’s sometimes overzealous classification system, according to Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists.

"It’s a battle over the integrity of the classification system," he said. "To insist on disclosure of the budget figure is to say that nothing should be classified unless there is a good reason to do so."

Even CIA Director Michael V. Hayden has said that the government has gotten carried away with classifying information.

The spending total has been disclosed twice in the past—in 1997 and 1998—when it was $26.6 billion and then $26.7 billion. Those amounts included the budgets for both national and tactical military intelligence. The government provided the 1997 figure only after Aftergood sued to press for a response to his freedom of information request.

The forces of openness have prevailed for now: the 2008 budget must also be disclosed next year. But come 2009, all bets are off.

Siobhan Gorman covers intelligence for the Baltimore Sun, a Tribune Co. newspaper