CONFRONTING CONGRESS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201670080-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 19, 2010
• Sequence Number: 80
• Publication Date: January 28, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201670080-9
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NEWSWEEK
28 January 1985
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Confronting Congress
Reagan's new team faces a fresh congressional lineup.
For much of its first term, the Reagan
administration provided a textbook lesson in
congressional relations. Now-at a critical
juncture for several major'initiatives-the
Reagan team will consist largely of new faces
or old faces in newplaces. And Congress itself
will have a different cast. Some House and
Senate veterans will assume new responsibil-
ities at the helms of the key committees that
will confront such complex issues as deficit
reduction, tax reform, de-
fense spending and "covert"
operations in Nicaragua.
Among the new leaders.-
Sen. David Durenberger. The Minnesota
Republican, now chairman of the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence, is soft-
spoken, reflective and cautious. The outgo-
ing chairman, Arizona Sen. Barry Gold-
water, is brash, outspoken and caustic. So
the most immediate change with Duren-
berger at the helm will, be stylistic. "Duren-
berger will do what he does quietly," says
one Intelligence Committee staffer.
What he will actually do is far more open
to question. On the first major issue con-
fronting his committee-the administra-
tion proposal for continued aid to rebels
opposing the Sandinista government in Nic-
aragua-Durenberger's record provides
few clues. Even he concedes that "it looks
like I've been on all sides of this thing." And
in fact he has, opposing the covert operation
at first, but reversing himself in September
1983 to vote for the aid. Disclosure last year
that the CIA had been involved in mining
Nicaraguan harbors angered him: "Indis-
criminate use of mining gives people around
the world the opportunity to say Ronald
Reagan is crazy," he said. The House has
repeatedly rejected additional funds for the
contras, and Durenberger appears ready to
buck the White House, too. The aid, he says,
is "helping to destroy the [congres-sional}
oversight process" by undermining public
confidence in covert operations.
At the very least, Durenberger intends to
scrutinize CIA activities. He is no fan of
William Casey, having described the CIA
director in a recent Minneapolis Star Trib-
une interview as a "2 on a scale of 10." Still,
Durenberger says he has no intention of
taking on Casey directly by seeking his resig-
nation. "I told [Casey} I didn't hire him," he
said. "I wasn't going to try to get him fired."
Durenberger is anxious to concentrate on
what he considers Intelligence's prime task:
establishing control over U.S. intelligence
activities. He is not enthusiastic about pro-
posals that his committee investi-
gate matters such as alleged atroc-
ities by the contras in Nicaragua
or reports that U.S. aid to rebels
in Afghanistan is being misappro-
priated. "The headline business ...
is not my idea of what the committee
ought to be," Durenberger told The
Washington Post. "If we spend the
next two years investigating Af-
ghanistan and the contras, we aren't
going to get the job done that we are
expected to do."
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EXCERPTED'
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/19: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201670080-9