LETTER TO HONORABLE THOMAS P. O'NEILL FROM STANSFIELD TURNER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00804R000100070004-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 2, 2000
• Sequence Number: 4
• Content Type: LETTER

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Honorable Thomas P. O'Neill
Speaker of the House of
Representatives .
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Mr. Speaker:
This letter. transmits for the consideration of the
Congress a draft "Intelligence and Intelligence-Related
Activities Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1980."
Last year, a cooperative effort on the part of the
Executive Branch and the Congress resulted-in passage of
the first specific annual appropriations authorization
for our nation's vital intelligence activities. This was an
important milestone in the development of responsible
Congressional oversight. I am confident that consideration of
the Fiscal Year 1980 intelligence authorization bill will
further that process and foster continued cooperation on
intelligence matters in the 96th Congress.
Titles 1, II and III of the draft bill are essentially
the same as those in the Fiscal Year 1979 Act; they
authorize appropriations for the conduct of the intelligence
and intelligence-related activities of Intelligence Community
entities, for the intelligence Community Staff, and for the
CIA'Retirement and Disability System. Section 101(b) of
the draft bill notes that the classified annex to the
joint explanatory statement of the Conference Committee
should be deemed to reflect "the intent of the Congress."
I believe that this formulation is in keeping with the
status generally accorded committee reports, and that it
is preferable to the language of the FY 1979 Act, which
declared that the classified annex should be deemed to
reflect "the final action of the Congress."
Titles IV and V provide authorizations for educational
travel benefits for dependents of CIA employees serving
overseas, and for the payment of death gratuities to the
survivors of certain CIA personnel. These titles are
designed to correct existing inequities and to insure
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that benefits available to CIA personnel serving overseas
are comparable to those received by employees of other
Executive Branch agencies in similar circumstances.
Higher educational facilities in many,of the
countries in which CIA employees serve are often
unavailable or inadequate, forcing families to separate
so that children can continue their education,at the
secondary and college level in the United States. A
1974 Amendment to Subparagraph 5924(4)(B) of Title..5,
United States Code, recognized the importance of regular
family reunifications to morale, and provided for
Government funding of an annual round trip for student
dependents of Department of State or United States
Information Agency (now International Communications
Agency) employees stationed overseas. Under current
law, however, most student dependents of CIA employees
can make only one such visit to their parents stationed
overseas while in high school or college. Title IV of
the draft authorization bill seeks to remedy this
inequitable situation by amending Section 5924 so as
to make CIA families stationed overseas eligible for the
same benefit already enjoyed by their State Department
and ICA colleagues.
Title V of the draft authorization bill is designed
to correct another inequity. Overseas service is becoming
more hazardous for personnel of all U.S. agencies. CIA
personnel often serve in particularly dangerous circumstances,
and they are especially attractive targets (and indeed
have been targets) for terrorist groups and extremist
organizations. The survivors of Foreign Service employees
who die as a result of injuries sustained in the performance
of duty outside the United States have been entitled to a
death gratuity payment in the amount of one year's salary
of the decedent at the time of death since 1. January 1973.
Under a 1977 Amendment to 22 United States Code 2679a(d),
survivors of Foreign Service Alien Employees were made
eligible for the death gratuity benefit retroactively to
l August 1974. Title V of the draft intelligence authorization
bill would authorize the Director of Central Intelligence to
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provide for payment of a death gratuity to the surviving
dependents of CIA personnel who die as a result of injuries
sustained in the performance of duty outside the United
States. The provision would apply to deaths that have
occurred since 1 January 1973. Because the potential
risk of death in the overseas environment-is not a
function of formal staff employee status, the proposed
legislation is written so as to enable me to issue
appropriate regulations with regard to the beriefit'.s
applicability to the various categories of individuals
affiliated with the Agency.
Title VI of the draft authorization bill amends the
Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949 to revise the
statutory basis under which CIA personnel are authorized
to carry firearms. The Amendment would authorize Agency
personnel to carry firearms without geographic limitation,
but it provides that within the United States firearms
may be carried only for certain specified purposes. This
proposal was submitted for Congressional consideration
in my letter to you of 11 May 1978, but it was not
enacted during the second session of the 95th Congress,
and I remain deeply concerned about the ability of the
Agency's existing statutory authority to support current
needs. Although the matter is addressed in provisions
of the proposed intelligence Charter legislation
(S. 2525/H.R. 11245), I continue to believe that
legislative clarification of the Agency's firearms
authority is of sufficient importance and urgency to
warrant separate prompt action.
Early and favorable consideration of the draft
"Intelligence and Intelligence-Related Activities
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1980" would be
greatly appreciated. The Office of Management and
Budget has advised that there is no objection to
presentation of this proposed legislation to the
Congress from the standpoint of the Administration's
program.
Yours sincerely,
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