	Introduction

The National Security Agency (NSA), one of the largest components of the U.S. Intelligence Community, hasreached a major watershed in its history. Responsible
for obtaining intelligence from international communications, (1) NSA's efforts are being challenged by the multiplicity of new types of communications links, bythe widespread availability of low-cost encryption systems, and by changes in the international environment inwhich dangerous security threats can come fromsmall, but well organized, terrorist groups as well as hostile nation states. Roles and Missions: The Growing Influence of Congress

For decades Congress was content to consider the signals intelligence effort and the organization of NSAprimarily as the responsibility of the executive branch.For a quarter century after the end of the Second World War, NSA and the nation's other intelligence agenciesundertook their activities with little publicity andwith congressional interest limited to a handful of members of armed services and appropriations committees. Of greater enduring significance was theestablishment of select intelligence committees in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. As a result of the extreme sensitivity of much intelligenceinformation, the two intelligence committeescame to act essentially as surrogates for the Congress and the public in regard to intelligence agencies. Director Hayden's Initiatives

Aware of the challenges facing the Nation's sigint effort and responsive to congressional concerns, the senior leadership of NSA has been moving to make drasticchanges in NSA's operations and organization. (20)
The two sets of recommendations reflected a consensus by these advisory groups (and by congressional overseers) that NSA requires more centralizedmanagement, that separate divisions that had long enjoyed functional independence need greater coordination toreduce duplicative functions, and that there needsto be a strategic vision of how the Agency is to adapt to changed geopolitical and technological environments. Bothreports reflected confidence in the importanceof NSA's missions, but both were highly critical of NSA's management and personnel structures. Constitutional principles and statutes sharply distinguish betweeninformation gathering by foreign intelligence anddomestic law enforcement agencies and efforts to involve NSA in surveillance of U.S. persons have been sharplyrestricted. (33)
NSA and counterpart agencies in a number of other countries, especially Great Britain, have come under much criticism in the European Parliament for allegedlymonitoring private communications of non-U.S. businessmen in a coordinated electronic surveillance effort knownas Echelon in order to support domesticcorporations. ThoughNSA has reassured congressional oversight committees that the Agency complies strictly with U.S. law, thesecontroversies will undoubtedly continue. Massive efforts were made to collect sigint dealing with military threats to the U.S. and its allies. NSA has long been the target of criticism from those who view intelligence agencies as inevitable threats to civil liberties. One account claims that 
It is the new Cold War.
The National Security Agency (NSA), one of the largest components of the U.S. Intelligence Community, has reached a major watershed in its history. Responsible for obtaining intelligence from international communications, NSA's efforts are being challenged bythe multiplicity of new types of communicationslinks, by the widespread availability of low-cost encryption systems, and by changes in the internationalenvironment in which dangerous security threats cancome from small, but well organized, terrorist groups as well as hostile nation states.
NSA's efforts to adjust to the changing geopolitical and technological environment have been strongly encouraged by Congress and reflect a major shift incongressional oversight of the Agency. Although Congress has always approved funding for NSA, for decadesroutine oversight was limited to a few Membersand staff. In the 1970s, congressional investigations of intelligence agencies resulted in greater public attention toNSA and criticism of activities that infringed onthe civil liberties of U.S. persons. Subsequently, both the Senate and the House of Representatives establishedintelligence oversight committees that have closelymonitored NSA's operations. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was enacted in 1978 to regulatecollection by foreign intelligence agencies of thecommunications of U.S. persons. The end of the Cold War, the expansion of low-cost encryption and the explosionof communications systems led Congress totake a more public profile in overseeing the large and secretive Agency.
Reacting in large measure to congressional concerns, NSA launched two separate management reviews, one by outside experts, the other by longtime Agencyofficials. Both made strong criticisms of Agency personnel policies, an outmoded organizational structure, and anunwillingness to utilize civilian practices thatmore effective than those available in-house. The current NSA Director, Lt. General Michael V. Hayden, USAF,has used these analyses to launch a series ofmajor initiatives designed to improve NSA's operations, to attract and reward more qualified people from outsideindustry, and is developing a major contract foroutside support of its non-sensitive Information Technology (IT) functions.
A major renewal effort is underway, but observers believe many challenges lie ahead that will require congressional oversight. Many of the reforms in personnelpolicies recommended are difficult to implement in a government organization, especially in an extremely tightmarket for technical specialists. The technicalcomplexities of dealing with widespread and sophisticated encryption as well as the proliferation of communicationsdevices remain to be resolved. NSA is,along with other intelligence agencies, not well-positioned to analyze developments among the assortment ofterrorist groups and narcotics smugglers around theworld that can seriously affect U.S. interests. NSA has also come under heated criticism in the European Parliamentfor allegedly collecting, in cooperation withthe British, commercial intelligence to benefit U.S. corporations.