Does Congress Need a Security Check, (Article, May 1954)
Full Text
Does Congress Need a Security Check?
By Edward S. Jones
President Eisenhower has vigorously stated that the executive branch of the Government has its security problem under control and is well able to police itself. But what about that branch of the Government, Congress, which has been badgering the executive into taking more stringent security steps?
Are the Congress and its hundreds of [employees] under the same rigid security system as the executive, or do security risks, in the broad, legal definition of the word, exist on Capitol Hill?
The answer to these questions is clear. The legislative branch of Government has never passed the necessary laws or changed its rules to establish the machinery necessary to safeguard confidential material to which it has access. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been given no legal authority to report on members of Congress and, until a security system is set up, they have no one to whom they can submit their reports for ultimate judgment.
Voluntary Clearance
It is true that some groups in Congress have seen the need for formal security clearance. The Joint Committee on Atomic Energy and its staff have voluntarily submitted to the clearance by the Atomic Energy Commission and Chairman Leverett Saltonstall of the Senate Armed Services Committee has mulled over the problem this way:
"I believe that all members of both Houses of Congress should be cleared for access to secret material. There are, however, certain practical difficulties to iron out, such as the terrific burden which would be placed on the overloaded personnel of the FBI. I also believe that members of Congress should do their utmost to employ on their staff men and women of outstanding honor and integrity."
Some Congressional committees such as the Senate Internal Security group get detailed FBI reports on their staff members, but this is for informal guidance only. Actual security clearance (evaluation of the raw FBI reports) belongs in the hands of a disinterested, independent board. Such a board could clear not only staff members but the Congressmen themselves.
A security risk is a person who directly or indirectly divulges or causes to be divulged--or could be expected to divulge in the future--to unauthorized persons information which could threaten our national security.
This definition not only includes Communists and fellow travelers, but also any one whose background and personal habits leave an opening for blackmail or coercion. In the latter category falls the blabbermouth, the heavy speculator, the habitual drunkard, the homosexual, the playboy, the man with relatives in enemy hands, the heavy debtor, and so forth.
The Joint Committee on Atomic Energy is not the only committee which has access to secrets which could endanger national security. The Armed Services and the Foreign Relations committees of both Houses have access to such confidential and vital data. Even the committees on agriculture can learn secrets concerning our food supply; banking committees can learn secrets which an enemy could use to ruin our currency; appropriations committees can learn the extent of our stockpile of strategic materials, and the various security committees have demonstrated that they have access to confidential information.
Questionable Cases
The personnel of congressional committees are constantly changing due to changes in the political winds, retirements, promotions or deaths. Members are appointed because of their particular aptitudes in some cases, but mainly because of their political allegiance coupled with seniority.
Senior committee members choose the hired staff hands. And any Congressman belonging to the right political party can become chairman of an important committee.
It is remotely possible that another person like former Representative Marion Zionchek, wild, neurotic and finally a suicide, might become chairman of a committee. Representative J. Parnell Thomas was convicted of padding his payroll while serving as chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee and thus became a security risk.
Congress have even had one out-and-out Communist party-liner on its rolls: Vito Marcantonio, American Labor Party of New York. Mr. Marcantonio through most of his career was shunted onto the relatively innocuous House Administration Committee, but for awhile was a member of the powerful Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee.
At present on Representative, Robert L. Condon, Democrat, of California, is still awaiting clearance from the Atomic Energy Commission after having been denied the right to view atomic tests for security reasons. (He maintains the trouble stems from attacks by political opponents.)
In regard to the committee staff, some attempts have been made to find out if any staff members are security risks. On March 6, the Senate approved a resolution by Senator Pat McCarran, Democrat, of Nevada, to require that all Senators and all Senate committees submit lists of members of their staffs to the FBI and the Central Intelligence Agency with a request to these agencies that they report any derogatory information in their files bearing on the individuals listed.
The type of clearance which would result from these reports, formerly called "interim clearance," has long ago been discarded by the Department of Defense as inconclusive and dangerous. It is the prime concern of every foreign agent that the FBI possess no derogatory information concerning them.
Another weakness of this resolution is the lack of definite provision for the listing of unpaid investigators like G. David Schine. No provision at all is made for private investigators, such as those on Senator McCarthy's personal payroll.
Infringement of Rights
Senatorial tradition and custom have lagged far behind the rapidly changing security situation. As elected representatives of the various "sovereign" States, Congressmen jealously guard their prerogatives and immunities. They question whether it would not be an infringement on the peoples' right to be represented fully in Congress if an elected officer were curtailed in his work because of security rules.
The FBI respects this position. The organization has said it would not investigate and not report on members of Congress.
The Constitution, however, says that "each House shall be the judge of the... qualifications of its own members." A security program organized and administered by Congress itself could be set up under that provision.
Until some such action is taken, a large gap in the Nation's security wall will remain.
