U.S. Intel Spending Tops $80B

The U.S. government spent $80.1 billion, some 12 percent of the country’s defense budget, to fund the largest national intelligence community in the world, in the past fiscal year. To put it in perspective, the number is $2 billion shy of the total Uncle Sam spends on Homeland Security and the Justice Department combined. Since it was last published in 1998, the intelligence budget has tripled. It has reportedly doubled since the 2001 terrorist attacks. "It is clear that the overall spending on intelligence has blossomed to an unacceptable level in the past decade," said Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee. The spending covers the CIA, the NSA, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and the Defense Intelligence Agency, in addition to a number of private contractors.