LETTER TO JIM WRIGHT FROM GEORGE P. SHULTZ

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90M01264R000100080019-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 3, 2012
• Sequence Number: 19
• Content Type: LETTER

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/12/03: CIA-RDP90M01264R000100080019-0
NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL
WASHINGTON, O.C. 20508
Dear Mr. Speaker:
The House soon will consider the "Intelligence Oversight Act of
1988" (H.R. 3822), better known as the "48-hour bill," which
would establish further detailed requirements for reporting
intelligence activities to the Congress. The bill would
unconstitutionally infringe on the President's ability to conduct
foreign policy by requiring him to ensure that, without exception,
a covert action is reported to the Congress no later than forty-
eight hours after the action is authorized,
The bill assumes -- falsely and dangerously -- that no set of
circumstances can exist in which lives at risk or national
security interests at stake would require that the President
notify the Congress later than forty-eight hours after he
authorizes an operation. Such circumstances will be exceedingly
rare. Nevertheless, should they occur, the President must have
the. flexibility to ensure that the United States can act with the
secrecy and dispatch that are .essential to the success of such
sensitive operations. The Constitution gives that authority to
act to the President and his constitutional powers cannot be
circumscribed as the bill proposes.
We continue to believe that the relationship between the Executive
and Legislative branches in the conduct of the Nation's most
sensitive foreign affairs activities should be defined by comity
and quiet consultation rather than formality and confrontation.
If H.R. 3822 is presented to the President in its current form,
we and the President's other senior advisers will recommend that.
he veto the bill in order to preserve the powers of the presidency.
George P. Shultz
The. Honorable Jim Wright
Speaker of the House
of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Sincerely,
Frank C. Carlucci
Secretary of Defense
William H. Webster
Director of Central
Intelligence
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/12/03: CIA-RDP90M01264R000100080019-0