United States intelligence budget

Pursuant to a suggestion by 9/11 Commission, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) released the top line amount given to the NIP for fiscal year 2009 as US$49.8 billion.

[3] Experts estimate that total spending on American military and non-military intelligence during the Cold War peaked at $71 billion (in 2013 dollars) in the late 1980s.

[6] List of some of the Agencies and Programs[7] An unclassified PowerPoint presentation obtained by Tim Shorrock for a 2007 DIA acquisition conference shows that 70% of the intelligence budget went to defense contractors.

In response, the ODNI stated that the overall intelligence budget, or breakdowns of it, could not be calculated based on the figures in the presentation.

But because it takes five to seven years to train a new officer, there was a "generational hole" that could only be filled by former intelligence officers with security clearances; and most of them were working in the private sector.General Michael Hayden, former director of the NSA, and later director of the CIA, has stated that the IT infrastructure at Fort Meade (home to the NSA headquarters) is owned by a single company.

Hayden also claims that the largest concentration of computing power in the world is located at an office park near Fort Meade, featuring the operations of various NSA contracting companies.

The U.S. Congress derives its oversight powers of the intelligence budget from Article I, Section 9, paragraph 7, of the U.S. Constitution that states, "No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law."