National Defense Intelligence College Paper: The Creation of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency: Congress's Role as Overseer - Colin Powell, John Glenn, Newt Gingrich, CIA

This unique and informative paper was produced by the National Intelligence University / National Defense Intelligence College. Topics and subjects include: NIMA, Colin Powell, DCI Deutch, HNSC, SASC, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Newt Gingrich, SSCI, SGAC, NFIP, TIARA, DMA, NPIC, CIO, NRO, DIA/PGX, DDPO, CIA, Arlen Specter, John Glenn, Bob Kerrey.

Although several articles have been written on the creation of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) from the executive branch's perspective, none have chronicled the attendant debate on Capitol Hill. "Creating the National Imagery and Mapping Agency: A Studies Roundtable," is the most comprehensive of those articles, being based on a discussion in November 1997 between the editorial board of Studies in Intelligence and key participants of the NIMA implementation team. That article provided a starting point for the present case study of congressional decisionmaking in the intelligence arena, which focuses on the struggle in Congress, rather than in the executive branch.

The present monograph may be characterized as a case study of congress's role as overseer of the U.S. Intelligence Community. A case study can follow an intelligence issue in Congress on a day-to-day basis, offering a perspective that goes beyond textbook descriptions of procedure to illustrate the human dynamics of the decisionmaking process. Thus, a case study offers the advantage of depth and detail, but only one case does not provide a basis for generalization. Works that do offer a more theoretical overview based on many cases provide a context within which to judge whether elements of a particular case are usual or unusual. Thus, it is has become the norm in academic treatments to pair the general with the specific. Eric Redman's, The Dance of Legislation, is a classic example. Redman's story focuses on the creation of the National Health Service Corps in the early 1970s and has been used to augment textbooks about Congress in countless classrooms across the country since its publication in 1973. Similarly, Birnbaum and Murray's more recent Showdown at Gucci Gulch details the passage of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 and has also become a common textbook supplement in courses on the Congress. Unfortunately, in-depth case studies of congressional decisionmaking on intelligence issues are too few to have resulted in a comprehensive textbook offering a theoretical context for this decisionmaking.

The case study presented here illustrates the combination of personality and process that resulted in the establishment of NIMA in 1996. It has been written specifically for those who are studying Congress and the U.S. Intelligence Community. It highlights the role of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees and how those committees interact with other committees—most specifically the Armed Services Committees.