ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET (Sanitized)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R001500040001-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 30, 2004
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: December 28, 1978
• Content Type: FORM

^ UNCLASSIFIED A rc
ST
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: (Officer designation, room number, and
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ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET
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SUBJECT: (Optional)
i~ROM
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EXTENSION
NO.
OLC: 78-3567
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Chief/Legislation Sta
Office of Legislative Counsel 5E11
DATE
28 December 1978
building)
DA
TE
OFFICER'S
COMMENTS (Plumber each comment to show from whom
INITIALS
to whom. Draw a line across column after each comment.)
;?' RECEIVED
FORWARDED
D/Il7
!ms's ra
Attached FYI is a memorandum I
19 hix~6
sent to on CIA-GAO
along with the memo
relations
,
2."
from OMB Director McIntyre we
spoke about and an OGC paper on
the Legislative Reorganization
3.
't think any
Act of 1970. I don't think any
action is imminent, but the issue
will have to be resolved sooner
4.
or later.
5.
a.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
FORM
3-o2
61 O USE EDITIONS PREVIOUS ^ SECRET 71 CONFIDENTIAL ^ UINTERNAL
SE ONLY
INTERNAL
d I~&' IQbIJase 2004/10/12: CIA-`R~PB~'I1VI1JEW150004000;-- 5 F C R#r''
STAT
STAT
UNCLASSIFIED
STAT
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OGC 78-7951
30 November 1978
MEMORANDUM FOR:
FROM .
SUBJECT
r-?--
-Assistant General counsel
Application of ?236 of the Legislative
Reorganization Act of 1970 (31 USC?1176)
to CIA
1. The subject statute provides that whenever the
General Accounting Office has made a report containing
recommendations to the head of any federal agency, that
agency shall, within sixty days, submit a report to the
House and Senate Committees on Government Operations of
action taken with respect to the recommendations made, and
shall make a similar report to the Committees on Appropriations
in connection with the agency's next request for appropriations.
It is the opinion of this Office that this statute applies to
the Central Intelligence Agency, subject to the authority of
the Director of Central Intelligence under the National
Security Act and CIA Act to protect intelligence, sources and
methods and to specially certify the expenditure of certain
funds pursuant to section 8 of the CIA Act.
2. The statute itself is broadly worded in terms which
make it applicable whenever GAO makes recommendations "to the
head of any federal agency." There is nothing within the
language of the statute itself or in its legislative history
which would offer a basis on which to conclude that CIA was
not intended to be included within the scope of "any federal
agency."
3. The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 was the.
first comprehensive statute to reorganize the federal legi-
lature since the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946,
which was the first such enactment in the history of the
Congress. The comprehensive nature of this legislation,
dealing generally with the congressional committee system,
fiscal controls, sources of information, and the Congress as
an institution, make it difficult to lightly conclude that
its provisions were intended to apply in certain situations
but not in others.
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4. Included within the avowed purpose of the bill was
the goal of providing the Congress with new sources of
information and research, and additional budgeting information.)
The Congress clearly viewed the requirement for additional
information as an essential element in more effectively
exercising the spending power accorded it under the Con-
stitution.2 To the extent that requirements for information
are validly linked in this manner to the appropriations
power, the authority of Congress to demand sujh information
could hardly be placed on more solid footing.
5. The provision in question, now codified at 31 USC?1176,
was enacted on 26 October 1970. It was solely a part of the
Senate version of the overall legislation until 8 October 1970,
when the House agreed to the Senate.amendments.4 The Senate
report on this legislation. offers little enlightenment re-
garding the purpose and scope of this Provision not already
evident on its face.5
6. Absent some indication in the record that the purpose
or scope of the provision in question, as envisioned by the
Congress, would not include reports by the Central Intelligence
Agency, the language of the provision itself forces us to
conclude that such CIA reporting is required in the same
manner as it would be for other agencies.. However, there is
nothing to suggest-that this legislation in any way modified
the statutory duty of the Director of Central Intelligence to
protect intelligence sources and methods.6 Similarly, the
authority of the DCI to specially certify expenditures, with
such certifications conclusively deemed sufficient, retains
its full vitality in the face of this, as well as any other,
GAO authority.? The reporting requirement under 31 USC?1176 as
applied to CIA is not fundamentally at odds with the DCI
special authorities. It is likely that most reporting required
under the provision in question could be accomplished without
presenting problems of security. To the extent that the
respective provisions can be interpreted in a manner consistent
with each other, this is what should be done. Accordingly, the
appropriate interpretation of the..provision in question would
seem to be that it requires an Agency report under the
1. H.Rep.No. 1215, 91st Cong. 2nd Sess. p.3 (1970)
2. id,p. 10; S.Rep.No. 202,91st Cong., 1st Sess. p.10 (1969)
3. U.S. Constitution, art. I,?8, cll and 18; art.I, ?9,cl 7.
4. 116-Cong. Rec. 35840, 35842 (1970); H.R. 17654, 91st Cong.
2nd Sess.?236 (1970)
5. S.Rep.No. 202, 91st Cong. 1st Sess. 14,35 (1969)
6. 50 USC?403 (d) (3) ; 50 USC&403g
7. 50 USC?403j(b)
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circumstances described to the extent that this may be done
without eroding the DCI's responsibility to protect intelligence
sources and methods from unauthorized disclosure.
ST
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