Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board set to lose power to examine covert action

A measure to strip a government watchdog’s ability to conduct oversight of US covert action programs is expected to pass Congress as early as the week of Dec 14 as part of a larger must-pass budget bill. The measure is a jab at the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), an independent executive-branch agency whose job is to ensure that the government’s counterterrorism programs respect Americans’ privacy and civil liberties.

The board’s chairman, David Medine, upset the House Intelligence Committee's GOP members with an essay he co-authored in April that suggested that an independent review panel was needed to assess whether the government’s decisions to target US citizens in drone strikes are appropriate. The essay also said that the PCLOB would be a good candidate to serve as the review board. The committee majority saw that suggestion, along with other reviews the PCLOB was undertaking, as “mission creep,” one aide said at the time. Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) said then that “review of such activity is ill-suited for a public board like the PCLOB.” But Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR), a member of the Senate intelligence committee, said the measure is “clearly unwise.” Though the board’s oversight activities to date have not focused on covert action, he said, “it is reasonably easy to envision a covert action program that could have a significant impact on Americans’ privacy and civil liberties -- for example, if it included a significant surveillance component.”