Senate Committee Jettisons Anti-Leaks Measure

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Pressure from media outlets, including The Washington Post, and a resounding thumbs-down from National Security Director James Clapper helped to derail an attempt by Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D.-Calif.) Senate Intelligence Committee ("SIC") to attach anti-leaks provisions to an intelligence spending bill, the Post reported.

The SIC passed the anti-leak measures last July to offset what Sen. Feinstein claimed were numerous leaks of government secrets to the press. Included among the provisions that were dropped from the intelligence spending package were measures that would have restricted ex-national security officials from taking jobs as tv commentators and that would have scrapped long-established, supervised "background briefings" during which intelligence analysts bring journalists up to speed concerning terrorists' threats and other national security issues, such as climate change.

Sen. Rob Wyden (D. Ore.), a member of the SIC, said he would place a hold on the bill, which procedurally would have prevented a vote on the spending bill, unless the anti-leaks amendments were deleted, according to the Post article.  The Newspaper Association of America and the Washington Post were among media groups that voiced their opposition to the abandoned anti-leaks provisions.