WASHINGTON (AP) - The House Intelligence Committee on Thursday rejected a proposal to withhold money from the National Security Agency if the White House did not reveal information about the cost of the agency's warrantless surveillance program.
In a session closed to reporters, only Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., who heads a subcommittee that oversees the NSA, voted with the Democrats to support the measure to hold back one-fifth of the agency's budget.
The committee also rejected legislation that would force the Bush administration to carve out $3 million for a board created in late 2004 to protect Americans' civil liberties from government infringements. Democrats have complained for months about what they consider to be Republican foot-dragging in establishing the civil liberties panel, formally known as the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.
The measures would have been part of a bill that would set intelligence funding next year. They come as Democrats have protested a lack of executive branch oversight in Congress.
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