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Anna Soellner Director of Outreach
Tel: 202.682.1611 |
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CLASSIFIED: Ensuring Congressional
Access to National Security Information Featured Speaker: Moderated by: The Constitution gives Congress broad authority to
oversee and investigate the activities of the executive branch. If Congress
is to carry out that authority, it must have access to many kinds of
government information, including classified or sensitive national security
information which government agencies may be reluctant to reveal. How
do Congress and the executive branch strike a proper balance between the
congressional need to have such information and the government's duty to
protect it? What options does Congress have when the government refuses to
provide the information it requests? When is it appropriate for Congress to
make national security information available to the public and the press? Please
join the Center for American Progress and OpenTheGovernment.org for an
address by The Honorable Jane Harman (D-CA), Chair of the House Homeland
Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information-Sharing and Terrorism Risk
Assessment and former Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee
on Intelligence, who will discuss the importance of national security
information to Congress and current efforts by the Administration to resist
providing it. Following
Rep. Harman's remarks, a distinguished panel of experts will examine the
means by which Congress obtains and makes use of national security
information in performing its oversight and investigative functions. Friday, March 30, 2007 Lunch
will be served at noon. Center for American Progress Nearest Metro: Blue/Orange
Line to For
more information, please call 202.741.6246. Biographies Congresswoman Jane Harman is a
leading congressional expert on terrorism, homeland security, and foreign
affairs. Now in her seventh term, Rep. Harman was first elected in 1992 to
represent In
2006, Rep. Harman completed eight years of service on the House Permanent
Select Committee on Intelligence?the final four as Ranking Member?where she
played a lead role in the creation and passage of the Intelligence Reform Act
of 2004. She was a familiar voice and frequent Administration critic on Prior
to her election to Congress, Rep. Harman worked as an attorney, served as
deputy secretary to the Cabinet in the Carter White House, and served as
special counsel to the Department of Defense. She began her career on Capitol
Hill as chief counsel and staff director for the Senate Judiciary
Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights. Steven Aftergood is a senior
research analyst at the Federation of American Scientists. He directs the FAS
Project on Government Secrecy, which works to reduce the scope of government
secrecy and to promote reform of official secrecy practices. He
writes Secrecy News, an email
newsletter (and blog)
which reports on new developments in secrecy policy for more than 10,000
subscribers in media, government, and among the general public. In
1997, Mr. Aftergood was the plaintiff in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit
against the Central Intelligence Agency which led to the declassification and
publication of the total intelligence budget ($26.6 billion in 1997) for the
first time in fifty years. In 2006, he won a FOIA lawsuit against the
National Reconnaissance Office for release of unclassified budget records. Mr.
Aftergood is an electrical engineer by training (B.Sc., UCLA, 1977) and has
published research in solid state physics. He joined the FAS staff in 1989.
He has authored or co-authored papers and essays in Scientific American, Science, New Scientist,
Journal of Geophysical Research, Journal of the Electrochemical Society, and
Issues in Science and Technology
on topics including space nuclear power, atmospheric effects of launch
vehicles, and government information policy. From 1992-1998, he served on the
Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board of the National Research Council. For
his work on confronting government secrecy, Mr. Aftergood has received the
James Madison Award from the American Library Association (2006), the Public
Access to Government Information Award from the American Association of Law
Libraries (2006), and the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award from the
Playboy Foundation (2004). Eleanor Hill returned to
King & Spalding as a partner in October 2003 following her service as the
Staff Director of the Joint Congressional Inquiry on the terrorist attacks of
September 11, 2001. As a member of the firm's Special Matters/Government
Investigations Group, her practice focuses on corporate internal
investigations, Congressional and other government investigations,
legislative and policy issues, compliance matters, and issues pertaining to
homeland security and intelligence. Prior
to her work with the Joint Inquiry, Ms. Hill was a partner at King &
Spalding. From 1995 through 1999, she served as Inspector General to the
Department of Defense. She served as Chair of the President's Council on
Integrity and Efficiency, as the co-chair of the Intelligence Community
Inspectors General Forum, and as a Member of the Attorney General's Council
on White Collar Crime. She was awarded the Department of Defense
Distinguished Service Medal by Secretary William Perry and the Bronze Palm to
the Distinguished Public Service Medal by Secretary William Cohen. From
1980 through February 1995, Ms. Hill was associated with the United States
Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. As the Subcommittee's
Chief Counsel and Staff Director, she led numerous efforts to draft and
negotiate legislative proposals in a variety of areas. In 1987, she also
served as Liaison Counsel for Senator Sam Nunn on the Senate Select Committee
on Secret Military Assistance to Ms.
Hill is also an experienced federal prosecutor and trial lawyer, having
served both as an Assistant United States Attorney in Tampa, Florida and as a
Special Attorney with the Organized Crime Section of the U.S. Department of
Justice. Ms.
Hill graduated, magna cum laude,
from Eric Lichtblau covers
federal law enforcement and national security issues for the For
his work on the domestic spying scandal, Lichtblau was the recipient of a
Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and is also the 2006 recipient,
with Times reporter James
Risen, of the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. The Pulitzer jury
applauded them "for their carefully sourced stories on secret domestic
eavesdropping that stirred a national debate on the boundary line between
fighting terrorism and protecting civil liberty." Lichtblau
has recently uncovered more government monitoring activities. The Swift
story, in which counter-terrorism officials accessed the banking transactions
of thousands of Americans from an international database, has alarmed many.
The government's departure from typical practice in how they acquire large
amounts of sensitive financial data has stirred concerns about legal and
privacy issues. Before
coming to the Times, he worked
for the The Los Angeles Times
for 15 years in both Lichtblau
is also a guest commentator on television, appearing frequently on CNN,
CNBC's Hardball, PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and C-SPAN's Washington Journal. He also appears
regularly on NPR's All Things Considered.
Lichtblau has given speeches for Suzanne Spaulding is Of Counsel
at Bingham McCutchen LLP and Principal of Bingham Consulting Group LLP. She
is an authority on national security related issues, including terrorism,
homeland security, critical infrastructure protection, cyber security,
intelligence, law enforcement, crisis management, and issues related to the
threat from chemical, biological, nuclear, or radiological weapons. She works
with clients to develop and implement legislative strategies around these and
other issues. She
started working on national security issues on Capitol Hill over 20 years
ago. More recently, she was the executive director of two congressionally
mandated commissions: the National Commission on Terrorism, chaired by
Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III, and the Commission to Assess the Organization
of the Federal Government to Combat the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass
Destruction, chaired by former CIA Director John Deutch. She has been quoted
regularly in media outlets around the country, offering analysis and insight
into issues related to national security. Suzanne
served as minority staff director for the U.S. House of Representatives
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Her previous legislative
experience includes serving as deputy staff director and general counsel for
the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and as legislative director and
senior counsel for Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA). She has also worked for
Representative Jane Harman (D-CA). She
was assistant general counsel at CIA, including a position as legal adviser
to the Mark Agrast is a
Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he focuses on the
Constitution, separation of powers, terrorism and civil liberties, and the
rule of law. Prior to joining the Center for American Progress, Agrast was
Counsel and Legislative Director to Congressman William D. Delahunt of A
native of Agrast
has been a leader in a number of professional and civic organizations, including
the American Bar Association, in which he serves on the 37-member Board of
Governors and its Executive Committee. He is a past chair of the ABA Section
of Individual Rights and Responsibilities and represents the section on the
Executive Board of the The Center
for American Progress is a nonpartisan research and educational institute
dedicated to promoting a strong, just and free |
