Upset over op-ed, GOP lawmakers seek to curb privacy board

Republican Representatives on the House Intelligence Committee, upset by an opinion piece penned by the chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, a government watchdog on privacy issues, have advanced a measure to block the agency’s access to information related to US covert action programs. The provision, in the 2016 intelligence authorization bill, takes a jab at the PCLOB, an independent executive branch agency whose job is to ensure that the government’s efforts to prevent terrorism are balanced with the need to protect privacy and civil liberties.

David Medine, the board’s chairman, co-authored an essay in April arguing that if the United States was to continue killing US citizens by drone strikes, an independent review panel was needed to assess whether targeting decisions are appropriate. That article “really stirred the pot,” said one congressional aide. The provision, which the committee passed on a voice vote, was an attempt by Republican Reps to make sure the board members “stay in their lane,” as another aide put it. “Covert action, by its very definition, is an activity that the United States cannot and should not acknowledge publicly,” the Intelligence Committee Chairman, Devin Nunes (R-CA), said. “Review of such activity is ill-suited for a public board like the PCLOB.”