House Rejects Bid to Declassify U.S. Spying Budget

WASHINGTON — The House rejected an attempt Tuesday to make the government disclose how much it spends on spying.

By a 221-194 vote, the House defeated an amendment to the 1995 intelligence spending bill that would declassify the aggregate budget figure, but not amounts spent on specific programs.

“I think people understand there are things that have to be kept secret,” said Rep. Larry Combest of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Select Committee on Intelligence.

Opponents of the amendment argued that disclosure of the budgets for the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency and related agencies would aid America’s enemies and contribute to what Combest called a “dangerous slope” toward revealing spending on specific programs.

But the amendment’s co-sponsor, Rep. Dan Glickman (D-Kan.), said continuing to classify the figure--widely reported to be about $28 billion--”only deepens the suspicion that secrecy is necessary to protect a budget that otherwise cannot be defended.”