Congress nominally had oversight over the CIA’s covert actions from its establishment in 1947, within the two houses’ respective Armed Services Committee and Appropriations Defense Subcommittee (Van Wagenen 2008). According to James Van Wagenen, the DIA Chair at the Joint Military Intelligence College, there was, “little involvement of Congress as a whole,” at the time (Van Wagenen 2008). Generally at the time, real acknowledgment of the covert actions within the Congressional committees was limited to the chairmen, ranking members, and those senior staff who were charged with ensuring that the Defense Budget reflected the CIA’s needs (Van Wagenen 2008). This limited involvement of Congress was not due to a legal issue of authority, but rather a lack of interest on behalf of Congress. Senator Leverett Saltonstall R-MA addressed this lack of interest in 1956 by explaining:
“It is not a question of reluctance on the part of the CIA officials to speak to us [Congress]. Instead, it is a questions of our reluctance, if you will, to seek information and knowledge on subjects which I personally, as a member of Congress and as a citizen, would rather not have…” (Saltonstall 1956).
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With the legislature’s disinterest, the Nixon Administration was able to authorize and oversee covert actions of which the American public did not approve. Watergate in particular directly went against the provision that covert action activities cannot be used in effect against the American public and in attempt to influence American domestic politics. According to Van Wagenen, “Congress was determined to rein in the Nixon administration and to ascertain the extent to which the nation’s intelligence agencies had been involved in questionable, if not outright illegal, activities,” (Van Wagenen