http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/23/politics/main1826870.shtmlCunningham's case has put a stark spotlight on the oversight of classified — or "black" — budgets. Unlike legislation dealing with social and economic issues, intelligence bills and parts of defense bills are written in private, in the name of national security.
That means it is up to members of Congress and select aides with security clearances to ensure that legislation is appropriate.
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A former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, now-retired Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., said he does not like earmarking. "Essentially it takes what should be a rational process of allocating public dollars and makes it into politics based, not merit based," he said.
Jim Currie, a Democratic aide on the Senate committee from 1985 to 1991, said classified bills are the perfect place to slip in provisions not scrutinized. Rarely do members of Congress examine the legislation, which is stored in safes in each committee's windowless, vault-like offices.
Congressional aides play an important role in reviewing the bills for items that are suspicious. But Stern, the auditor for the House Intelligence Committee, found that Cunningham harassed staff members to get his way, undermining that oversight. Once, when an aide found out that a Cunningham spending priority had been changed, he wrote in an e-mail: "I am under my desk, ducking and covering."
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