Obama Won't Disclose Spy Agency Budgets

[n2doc]

Resisting a campaign for greater transparency, the White House has decided to keep American taxpayers in the dark about how much they’re likely to spend on government spy agencies.

President Barack Obama unveiled his fiscal 2016 budget requests Monday with the continued omission of proposed spending levels for specific intelligence agencies, which are funded with a so-called “black budget” supplement debated and voted upon behind closed doors by congressional appropriators.

Last year, dozens of members of Congress asked Obama to voluntarily disclose the dollar amount requested for individual spy agencies, pressing for more democratic decision-making as a check against potential waste and arguing limited transparency would not harm national security. Sixty-two members signed onto legislation that would have forced the disclosure.

Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., one of the effort’s leaders, calls the non-disclosure "a missed opportunity for transparency and rebuilding public confidence in the intelligence community."

more
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/02/02/black-budget-requests-remain-secret

Of course, he's no different from his predecessors on this.