So with the Republicans taking over the Senate, this is going to suck big time:
http://www.newrepublic.com/...
Tuesday’s Republican takeover of the Senate effectively ruined any chance of Congressional oversight of the CIA. Senator Mark Udall, who earned a score of 100 percent from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), lost his seat in Colorado. And Senator Richard Burr, with an ACLU score of 0 percent, is set to become Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), the group tasked with holding the CIA and the NSA accountable.
He will replace Senator Dianne Feinstein, who has consistently defended the CIA’s targeted killing campaign and the NSA’s mass collection of communication records. Although many felt Feinstein was too cozy with the intelligence agencies, she gave a scathing speech on the Senate floor in March, accusing the CIA of lying about the severity of their detention and interrogation programs and illegally searching the computers of Senate staffers working on the SSCI’s final review of the program. Burr replied to Feinstein’s speech by telling reporters, “I personally don't believe that anything that goes on in the intelligence committee should ever be discussed publicly.” And when he takes charge, he’ll presumably do everything in his power to make sure that it won’t.
Historically, Congress has tended to give the CIA a free pass, with a few exceptions. In 1975, the Church Committee published 14 reports detailing illegal CIA activity ranging from plots to assassinate foreign leaders to the opening and reading of domestic mail. The Church Committee discoveries led to the creation of the House and Senate Select Committees on Oversight, which were supposed to serve as a permanent check on CIA power. Whatever limited oversight these committees provided largely dissipated after September 11.
But it appears the CIA crossed a line when it effectively attempted to oversee Congressional overseers who were investigating detention and interrogation programs. Feinstein’s speech in March was the harshest Congressional criticism of the CIA since the Church Committee. Burr saw it as out of bounds: “Dianne may have some problems with it, but I think we’ve gotten a full accounting of what happened,” he told Politico. - The NEw Republic, 11/5/14
Pretty scary, right? Well Wired explains that Burr might have a hard time getting anything done as Chairman:
http://www.wired.com/...
As key provisions of the Patriot Act move closer to their expiration nexy year, Congress will have to confront privacy and domestic security head-on. “The issue of NSA reform is a must-address issue,” Singh Giulini explains.
But now that the Republicans control the Senate—Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina will chair the intelligence committee—it may be harder to pass comprehensive NSA reform that limits what kind of information can be tracked and stored, from whom, and using which methods. Burr once famously said, “If I had my way, with the exception of nominees, there would never be a public intelligence hearing.”
This doesn’t sound promising for privacy reform. But Burr can’t have his way simply by wielding the gavel. All eyes will be on him, and members of his own party have expressed outrage at the aggressive behavior of the intelligence-gathering community. A quiet reauthorization of the Patriot Act will not be possible in this environment.
“Based on what we hear from a lot of members, there is a lot of discomfort in a quiet re-authorization where there is not a full debate and a full understanding of what is being passed. It’s an issue that is not going to go away, and leadership will have to deal,” Singh Guliani notes. Adding that everyone knows “it’s not something we can kick the can on indefinitely.”
Although Burr has been an outspoken supporter of the NSA, he’ll have a hard time fighting the reform momentum that has swept Capitol Hill. “All of that is going to shift onto chairman Burr and create pressure on him to take a closer look at these issues,” Singh Guliani says.
And although the committee chairs have the prerogative to set the agenda, “junior members do hold power and sway within the committee and that can supplement any deficiencies that a chair of the committee may have,” says Mark Jaycox, legislative analyst with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. - Wired, 11/6/14
We'll see what happens. Burr will certainly be top target in 2016. Stay tuned.