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Congressional Oversight Of Government

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When the three branches of government were created a system of “check and balances” was built into the Constitution in order to keep one branch of government from becoming too large and too powerful. Actions that are taken by one branch of government affect the other branches, thereby introducing “oversight”. The intelligence community has both internal and external oversight. The internal oversight comes from the CIA Inspector General that is embedded within the intelligence community. The external oversight comes from both the executive and legislative branches of the government. The legislative branch, or Congress, provides this checks and balances through the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. …show more content…

They were designed to “prevent future abuses of power and maintain ongoing and regular oversight of the intelligence community” (Rosenbach, 2009). Congressional oversight of intelligence activities is the act of congress watching over and having knowledge of operations and missions that are taking place within the intelligence community. “Congressional oversight prevents waste and fraud; protects civil liberties and individual rights; ensures executive compliance with the law; gathers information for making laws and educating the public; and evaluates executive performance” (Oversight Powers of Congress, 2012). Without this oversight the intelligence community could very well do as they please with a budget and over stepping their bounds on American civil

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