Congressional Oversight for Some, Miniature American Flags for Others

In April, 327 members of the House of Representatives voted for a classified intelligence bill, thereby authorizing some of the administration's anti-terrorism measures. 96 voted against it. And according to The Boston Globe, approximately a dozen representatives read it:

Nearly all members of the House of Representatives opted out of a chance to read this year's classified intelligence bill, and then voted on secret provisions they knew almost nothing about…

Only about a dozen House members scheduled time this year to read the classified sections of the intelligence bill, according to a House Intelligence Committee spokesman. The estimate dovetailed with a Globe survey sent to all members of the House, in which the vast majority of the respondents -- including eight out of 10 in the Massachusetts delegation -- said they typically don't read the classified parts of intelligence bills.

Representatives who plan to read classified provisions must promise not to debate or discuss them in the absence of White House authorization -- even if leaks later reveal the information to the public. Representatives either didn't want to strike that deal, didn't want to take the time to read the bill without help from staffers, or -- in the words of one anonymous legislator -- "did not even know lawmakers were allowed to read the classified sections of the bills."

Whole thing here.