Article: House Panel Approves a Record $48 Billion for Spy Agencies

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has authorized U.S. intelligence agencies to spend an estimated $48 billion in fiscal 2008, the largest amount ever included in an intelligence bill, thanks to inclusion of funding efforts associated with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In approving the bill Monday evening, the panel's chairman, Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.), said, "The single largest intelligence authorization bill ever written by the committee [is] evidence of how important intelligence has become to our national security." While the exact numbers in the measure are classified, intelligence experts estimate it has grown nearly 4 percent annually in recent years.

The ...

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