Unclassified version of FY2014 budget includes more than $1 billion for CIA

Buried amidst the hundreds of pages that comprise the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2014, the government-wide spending plan which the House essentially agreed to on January 15, 2014, are two little-noticed provisions related to the Central Intelligence Agency.

One provision would appropriate more than half a billion dollars for the Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability Fund (the same budget level as last year), and the other provision would appropriate more than $528 million for the Intelligence Community Management Account (a drop of more than $12 million from last year.) Of course, the bulk of the nation’s intelligence budget is considered classified, and was not included in the public version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2014.

Neither provision related to the CIA garnered much attention because the funding levels from previous years did not change dramatically.

The CIA retirement fund “for certain employees” was set up half a century ago by the Central Intelligence Agency Retirement Act of 1964 for Certain Employees. Under this law, first the Director of Central Intelligence (and more recently the Director of National Intelligence) has had the authority “in the interests of the security of the foreign intelligence activities of the United States” to protect the nation’s “intelligence sources and methods.” Presumably, this includes protecting the names of some of the individuals who are eligible to receive retirement benefits from this CIA fund. Furthermore, any decision by the Director “shall be final and conclusive and shall not be subject to review by any court.”

The Intelligence Community Management Account is an umbrella account that holds specialized programs that directly support the Director of National Intelligence and the Intelligence Community as a whole.