Press Releases
Rep. Wenstrup Seeks to Codify Congressional Oversight Role with the Intelligence Community
Washington,
February 9, 2023
Washington, D.C. - Representative Brad Wenstrup (OH-02) sought to codify the role of Congressional oversight with Dr. Heather Wilson, former Secretary of the Air Force and Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI.) He asked for Dr. Wilson's perspective on the Intelligence Community’s (IC) repeated stonewalling and failures to brief and inform Congress. The exchange took place at an open panel held by the Intelligence Committee with former national security officials. "In the military, we have the UCMJ, where unethical is unlawful... in the agencies, it seems that unethical is a little slap on the hand," said Rep. Wenstrup. "Then we couple that with situations where we've been dealing with the IC and this Committee, and they tell us, they’re not going to answer our questions. Well, who has oversight?"
Statement from Rep. Wenstrup: "This is a bipartisan concern. Congress creates the agencies and taxpayer dollars are used to fund them. The agencies need to answer to the people whose government it is." Background: Despite the Intelligence Committee's oversight role over the Intelligence Community, individuals and agencies have stonewalled, failed to brief the Committee, and failed to share documents on numerous occasions, including the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago, the recent seizures of classified documents at several locations connected to then-Vice President Joe Biden, misuse of the FISA courts by the FBI, attempted entrapment of Carter Page, and Crossfire Hurricane. Additionally, despite repeated Congressional requests, the FBI have still not shared documents connected to the 2017 Congressional baseball shooting. Click here to view Rep. Wenstrup's full remarks. ### |
