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President’s Intelligence Advisory Board

President Eisenhower created the President’s Board of Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Activities in 1956, after concluding that he needed an outside body of highly respected and accomplished Americans to give him unfettered and candid appraisals of U.S. intelligence activities. President Kennedy renamed it the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB) in 1961, and it has served every President except for President Carter, who abolished the Board in 1977. President Reagan re-instituted the PFIAB in 1981, and in 2008 President Bush renamed it the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board to reflect the fact that national intelligence does not begin or end at our Nation’s borders.

The PIAB exists exclusively to assist the President by providing him with an independent source of advice on the effectiveness with which the Intelligence Community is meeting the Nation’s intelligence needs, and the vigor and insight with which the community plans for the future. The Board has access to all information needed to perform its functions and has direct access to the President.

The Board reports its findings and recommendations on improving the performance of intelligence entities to the President as necessary, but not less than twice each year. On behalf of the President, the Board assesses issues pertaining to the quality, quantity, and adequacy of intelligence activities; effectiveness of organizational structure, management, and personnel; and performance of all agencies of the Federal Government engaged in the collection, evaluation, or production of intelligence or the execution of intelligence policy.

Intelligence Oversight Board

President Ford created the IOB in 1976 in response to recommendations made by the Rockefeller Commission calling for a Presidential-level body with specific oversight responsibilities for the legality and propriety of U.S. intelligence activities. The IOB oversees the Intelligence Community’s compliance with the Constitution and all applicable laws, Executive Orders, and Presidential Directives. It complements and supplements, rather than duplicates the oversight roles of the Director of National Intelligence, Department and Agency Inspectors General and General Counsels, and the Congressional Oversight Committees.

In reviewing the legality and propriety of intelligence activities, the Board advises the President on intelligence activities that the Board believes may be unlawful or contrary to Executive Order or Presidential Directive; are not being adequately addressed by the Attorney General, the Director of National Intelligence, or the head of the department or agency concerned; or should be immediately brought to his attention.