Bipartisan Congressional Leaders Urge GAO to Review Federal Government Terrorism Budget

Washington, DC - A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators and House members today urged the U.S. General Accounting Office to conduct a comprehensive review of the federal government's spending to combat terrorism.

The request comes from the a number of congressional leaders in the fight against terrorism: Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism and Government Information; ranking member Jon Kyl (R-Arizona); Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chair Bob Graham (D-Florida); ranking member Richard Shelby (R-Ala.); House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin); and ranking member John Conyers (D-Michigan.).

In the letter, the members wrote, "To the best of our knowledge, there has never been a comprehensive review of the federal government budget to combat terrorism. We request that GAO, together with the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), conduct such a review."

"Recently, the Senate and House have held a number of hearings regarding the need to improve our efforts to combat terrorism. These hearings revealed that - even though appropriations have increased from $7.7 billion for FY 1998 to over $12 billion for FY 2001 - the procedures for developing the federal budget to combat terrorism and the ability to monitor spending in this area are not as coordinated as they could be. As a result, the links between funding and key activities to combat terrorism are sometimes obscured, and it is difficult for program managers and policymakers to provide appropriate management and oversight."

The group urges GAO and SSCI to provide analysis of: funding requests and appropriations; budget coordination and decision making across agencies; potential duplication among agencies; and whether the government effectively utilizes dollars appropriated to combat terrorism.

The letter from the members of Congress is attached.

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