President Obama wants to share U.S. secrets with a German parliamentary committee investigating the National Security Agency’s spying in Germany.
The move is in direct opposition to Congressional restrictions, which were added to the fiscal 2016 intelligence authorization bill that would block intelligence sharing.
In a notice sent to Congress Tuesday, the Office of Management and Budget outlined a series of objections to the current House intelligence bill, including a section of the bill that would prevent sharing classified U.S. intelligence in response to requests by foreign governments.
The bill states that none of the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies would be allowed to use funds “to respond to, share, or authorize the sharing of any non-public information related to intelligence activities carried out by the United States in response to a legislative or judicial inquiry from a foreign government into the intelligence activities of the United States.”
The OMB said in its notice that it “strongly opposes” the restrictions, along with other sections, and the language could lead to a presidential veto.
This provision could affect our relationships with foreign partners and interferes with the president’s authority to conduct foreign relations and control the dissemination of sensitive national security information
The country or countries that would be blocked from the receiving U.S. intelligence were not specified by either the legislation or the White House.
