The United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), also known as the House Intelligence Committee, is a
committee
A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...
of the
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...
, currently chaired by
Rick Crawford. It is the primary committee in the U.S. House of Representatives charged with the oversight of the
United States Intelligence Community
The United States Intelligence Community (IC) is a group of separate US federal government, U.S. federal government intelligence agencies and subordinate organizations that work to conduct Intelligence assessment, intelligence activities which ...
, though it does share some jurisdiction with other committees in the House, including the
Armed Services Committee for some matters dealing with the
Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...
and the various branches of the
U.S. military.
The committee was preceded by the Select Committee on Intelligence between 1975 and 1977. House Resolution 658 established the
permanent select committee, which gave it status equal to a
standing committee
A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...
on July 14, 1977.
Jurisdiction
The committee oversees all or part of the following
executive branch departments and
agencies:
History
Prior to establishing the permanent select committee in 1977, the House of Representatives established the "Select Committee on Intelligence", commonly referred to as the "
Pike Committee", so named after its last chairman,
Otis G. Pike of
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
. The
select committee had originally been established in February 1975 under the chairmanship of Congressman
Lucien Nedzi of
Michigan
Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...
. Following Nedzi's resignation in June, the committee was reconstituted with Pike as chair, in July 1975, with its mandate expiring January 31, 1976. Under Pike's chairmanship, the committee investigated illegal activities by the
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
(CIA) and the
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
(FBI).
The final report of the Pike Committee was never officially published due to Congressional opposition. However, unauthorized versions of the draft final report were leaked to the press.
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. CBS News television programs include ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morn ...
reporter
Daniel Schorr
Daniel Louis Schorr (August 31, 1916 – July 23, 2010) was an American journalist who covered world news for more than 60 years. He was most recently a Senior News Analyst for National Public Radio (NPR). Schorr won three Emmy Awards for his te ...
was called to testify before Congress, but refused to divulge his source. Major portions of the report were published by ''
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...
'', and a full copy of the draft was published in England.
During the 1980s the HPSCI worked to acquire access to covert action notifications of the CIA, as well as to strengthen the role of the committee in intelligence agency funding. Under the
Reagan administration
Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following his landslide victory over ...
, the HPSCI and
United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (sometimes referred to as the Intelligence Committee or SSCI) is dedicated to overseeing the United States Intelligence Community—the agencies and bureaus of the federal government of ...
(SSCI) worked with
Director of Central Intelligence
The director of central intelligence (DCI) was the head of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1946 to 2004, acting as the principal intelligence advisor to the president of the United States and the United States National Se ...
William J. Casey on what was known as the "Casey Accords". The accords required that covert action findings were to be accompanied by "scope papers" that included a risk/gain assessment of each such activity. However, the deal was not acceptable to the HPSCI, and after the
Iran–Contra affair
The Iran–Contra affair (; ), also referred to as the Iran–Contra scandal, the Iran Initiative, or simply Iran–Contra, was a political scandal in the United States that centered on arms trafficking to Iran between 1981 and 1986, facilitat ...
, more pressure was placed on strengthening the oversight of committees.
In 2017, the committee was tasked along with the SSCI to evaluate the
degree of Russian interference in the
2016 US elections. The committee was also investigating allegations of
wiretapping
Wiretapping, also known as wire tapping or telephone tapping, is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connecti ...
of
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
, as well as ties between Russian officials and members of Trump's presidential campaign. The committee came under intense scrutiny in 2017 and 2018 due to allegations of partisanship and leaks of classified information by members and their staff. In March 2018, the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections was abruptly ended by the committee's Republican members despite the assertion by Democratic members that the investigation was incomplete and had failed to gather pertinent information. Notably, House Intelligence Republicans released a draft of their investigatory report which contradicted some findings of the U.S. Intelligence Community and was written without the input of House Democrats.
In March 2018, after further disagreements, Republican committee member
Tom Rooney claimed that the committee had "lost all credibility" and had become "a political forum for people to leak information to drive the day's news."
With the change of party leadership in the House in the
116th United States Congress
The 116th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate, Senate and the United States House of Representati ...
, the committee launched a probe of Trump's finances and Russian ties in February 2019. In June 2019, in the course of hearings on the national security implications of climate change, the White House blocked the submission of a statement by the State Department's
Bureau of Intelligence and Research
The Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) is an intelligence agency in the United States Department of State. Its central mission is to provide all-source intelligence and analysis in support of U.S. diplomacy and foreign policy. INR is th ...
Office of the Geographer and Global Issues, and the analyst who wrote the statement, Rod Schoonover, resigned.
Members, 119th Congress
Subcommittees
Historical membership rosters
118th Congress
;Subcommittees
117th Congress
;Subcommittees
Chairs
Select Committee chairs
*
Lucien N. Nedzi (D), 1975
*
Otis G. Pike (D), 1975–1976
Permanent Select Committee chairs
*
Edward P. Boland
Edward Patrick Boland (October 1, 1911 – November 4, 2001) was an American politician from the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A Democratic Party (United States), Democrat, he was a representative from Massachusetts's ...
(D), 1977–1985
*
Lee H. Hamilton (D), 1985–1987
*
Louis Stokes (D), 1987–1989
*
Anthony C. Beilenson (D), 1989–1991
*
David K. McCurdy (D), 1991–1993
*
Dan Glickman
Daniel Robert Glickman (born November 24, 1944) is an American politician, lawyer, lobbyist, and nonprofit leader. He served as the United States secretary of agriculture from 1995 until 2001 in the Clinton administration. He previously represen ...
(D), 1993–1995
*
Larry Combest (R), 1995–1997
*
Porter Goss (R), 1997–2004
*
Pete Hoekstra
Cornelis Piet Hoekstra (; born October 30, 1953) is a Dutch-American politician who is serving as Ambassador to Canada. Hoekstra had served as the United States Ambassador to the Netherlands from January 10, 2018, to January 17, 2021. A member ...
(R), 2004–2007
*
Silvestre Reyes
Silvestre "Silver" Reyes (born November 10, 1944) is an American politician who was the U.S. representative for , serving from 1997 to 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he was Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligen ...
(D), 2007–2011
*
Mike Rogers (R), 2011–2015
*
Devin Nunes
Devin Gerald Nunes (; born October 1, 1973) is an American businessman and politician who serves as the Chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board since January 20, 2025, and as chief executive officer of the Trump Media & Technolog ...
(R), 2015–2019
*
Adam Schiff
Adam Bennett Schiff (born June 22, 1960) is an American lawyer, author, and politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator from California, a seat he has held since 2024. A m ...
(D), 2019–2023
*
Mike Turner (R), 2023–2025
*
Rick Crawford (R), 2025–Present
See also
*
COINTELPRO
COINTELPRO (a syllabic abbreviation derived from Counter Intelligence Program) was a series of covert and illegal projects conducted between 1956 and 1971 by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltr ...
*
Church Committee
The Church Committee (formally the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities) was a US Senate select committee in 1975 that investigated abuses by the Central Intelligence ...
*
Family Jewels
*
*
Timeline of investigations into Trump and Russia (2019)
*
United States President's Commission on CIA Activities within the United States
*
United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (sometimes referred to as the Intelligence Committee or SSCI) is dedicated to overseeing the United States Intelligence Community—the agencies and bureaus of the federal government of ...
Notes
External links
*
The Pike Committee Investigations and the CIA ''Government Printing Office Online''. Detailed listings of many aspects of previous memberships and sessions of Congress.
Open Congress WikiPike Committee Reports
Are all leaks good? The Pike Committee Report, Kissinger, and the Distortion of EventsHistorical Dictionary of the Kurds: Pike Committee Report
{{Authority control
Intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as t ...
Reports of the United States government
Intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as t ...
1977 establishments in Washington, D.C.
Government agencies established in 1977
Organizations associated with Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections
Legislative intelligence oversight