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(U) SID's Interactions with Congress: Part III - Communications and
Orgs (repost)
FROM: SIGINT Communications
Run Date: 12/29/2003
(U) Communications
(U) How Many Congressional Queries and Briefings Does SID LA Handle Per Month?
(U//FOUO) The number of queries from staffers varies. The busiest months are typically March,
April and May, because the staffers are reviewing the CBJB and preparing their budget mark
ups. This year, a total of 18, 40, and 23 RFIs were received during these months, respectively. A
large majority of the queries require a very quick turnaround during this time, and as it is LA's
opportunity to influence the mark ups, these requests are given focused attention.
(U//FOUO) Requests for briefings tend to be heaviest from Jan - May. Again, this is due to the
fact that staffers are preparing for their mark ups. This year, the number of staffer visits to SID
ranged from 12 to 16 per month during the period of March through May. These visits often
included multiple briefings.
(U) How Else Does SID LA Communicate With Congress?
(U//FOUO) In addition to budgeting issues, Congress is also responsible for general oversight of
NSA (and SID), to ensure we are doing our job competently and adhering to the law. As a result,
we keep the Congress informed of significant developments that may affect our performance
(positively or negatively). A vehicle for doing this is a "Congressional Notification". These range
from "bad news" reports-- such as power outages that have resulted in degradation of service or
security breaches at field stations-- to items of interest such as:
the NSA Off-site Language Processing Facility;
Global Network Analyst Intern Program;
change in SID leadership; and
new partnerships with Third Parties.
As such, notifications are a great way to keep Congress informed of good news as well as bad
news. They should hear it from us before they read it in the paper.
(U) How Does SID LA Communicate with the SID Workforce?
(U) Every Friday SID LA publishes a Weekly Congressional Update providing feedback on recent
congressional visits, highlighting upcoming visits and congressional travel. This update can be
found on the SID LA website . The updates are also available via the SID Notes/Reports
section of the SID Today homepage.
(U) Organizational Structure
(U) How Does SID LA Work With NSA's LAO?
(U//FOUO) SID LA provides congressional staffers and committees with appropriate SIGINTrelated information and briefings and develop the SID Congressional Engagement Strategy for
inclusion into the overall NSA Engagement Strategy. The office is not forward-deployed from
NSA LAO, but is actually assigned to SID and staffed by SIGINTers. It is structured similarly to
NSA LAO in that SID LA has separate "account managers" for the involved congressional
committees. Office personnel usually attend SID briefings to the congressional staffs and
committees and provide feedback on these sessions to SID leadership. They can then provide
background information as to the tone and context surrounding follow-on queries from
Congress.
(U//FOUO) For further information on how NSA LAO interacts with Congress, see their web page
at "go lao".
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid comms)."
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DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108