Obama's Drones Program Needs Some Real Congressional Oversight, and Ted Yoho's Drone Reform Act Would Make That Happen

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By Jason Pye

The Central Intelligence Agency has, for years, been engaged in a secret drone war, carrying out operations in the Middle East to hunt down terrorist leaders. While it's understandable that some measure of secrecy is needed to carry out its duties, for far too long Congress has been unable to perform any meaningful oversight of the Agency's activities.

Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) is trying to change that.

Yoho introduced the Drone Reform Act (H.R. 5091) earlier this month. This legislation would consolidate the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV, or "drones," as they're known to most Americans) into the Department of Defense.

"The CIA's main mission is intelligence collection and analysis. It should not be in the business of military strikes. This legislation will bring our armed drone fleet under the jurisdiction of the DOD, where it should be," Yoho said in a press release announcing the legislation. "If our national security requires drone strikes abroad, then one agency should be held accountable to the American people."

Original cosponsors of the Drone Reform Act include Reps. Justin Amash (R-MI), Thomas Massie (R-KY), John Conyers (D-MI), and Barbara Lee (D-CA).

The Drone Reform Act, Yoho's office explains, would mean more accountability in the budgetary and appropriations process. The CIA's budget is heavily redacted, even to members of Congress, meaning that lawmakers cannot properly account for funding and resources.

The measure would also increase oversight by expanding jurisdiction to congressional Judiciary, Armed Services, Foreign Relations/Affairs, and Oversight Committees where members will learned about the drones program in open hearings. Currently, only congressional Intelligence committees are briefed in closed hearings.

Perhaps one of the more concerning aspects of the status quo is that most members of Congress are in the dark on statistics relating to drone strikes. They don't know the numbers and targets, or even how many innocent people or property are involved in these secret activities.

Journalist Jeremy Scahill offered some insight into these secret activities in his 2013 documentary Dirty Wars, which is available for viewing on Netflix. Scahill traveled to Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia to learn more about the deadly drone strikes, in which innocent people have been killed, that have been carried out in Americans' names by the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), the latter of which is part of the Department of Defense.

Yoho notes that top military officials want a way to talk about drone strikes "against criticism at home and abroad and against the spread of misinformation from terrorist groups," and this bill, he said, would allow them to do so in testimony before Congress.

The Drones Reform Act, Yoho said, "will make it clear that no other federal agency or department, or any personnel, shall have authority to operate or fire an armed drone except for DOD."

Indeed, the 9/11 Commission recommended in 2004 that all paramilitary operations, including those deemed clandestine or covert, should be shifted to the Department of Defense. Unfortunately, the Bush administration didn't implement the recommendation, and the Obama administration hasn't, to this point, either.

The CIA needs to be focused on its charter tasks, not waging secret wars from which its not accountable to the American people through their representatives in Washington. If it's to be done, war-making should be left to the Department of Defense, and the Department of Defense alone.

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