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Article: Intelligence, United States Congressional Oversight of
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, andSecurity
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Intelligence, United States Congressional Oversight of
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JUDSON KNIGHT
Although the United States Congress served as facilitator to the establishment of the U.S. intelligence community by passing the National Security Act of 1947, during the next quarter-century it exerted little oversight in matters of intelligence. Then, in the 1970s, as distrust of the executive branch grew in the wake of the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War, Congress began to take a more activist stance. The result was the formation of the Church Committee in the Senate and the Pike Committee in the House of Representatives, both precursors to permanent committees exerting legislative oversight ...