Nor is it credible to say that Snowden could have done what he did without breaking the law, not when we have also learned that the normal instruments of oversight and judicial review were broken.
Both want to update RIPA and beef up the instruments of oversight: two commissioners, who rule on the legality of spy operations, and Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), which takes a broader view.
"I found that questions are probably one of the most effective instruments for oversight," Mr. Dingell said, relishing the word "effective" and seeming to suck it through his teeth.
Officials say they will make wide-ranging changes, including stricter federal rules for hedge funds, credit rating agencies and mortgage brokers, and greater oversight of the complex financial instruments that contributed to the economic crisis.
PS developed the web survey instrument and provided oversight for the technical aspects of the survey administration.
The administration asked Congress to move quickly on legislation that would allow federal oversight of many kinds of exotic instruments, including credit-default swaps, the insurance contracts that caused the near-collapse of the American International Group.
The team, consisting of statisticians, epidemiologists and nutritionists, had responsibility for survey design, instrument development and project oversight and data management.
The new oversight board is viewed as an important instrument to calm the roiled stock markets and restore credibility to the oversight of a profession that has lost one of its major firms, Arthur Andersen, because of its criminal involvement in the Enron scandal, and which is still faced with a steady stream of accusations involving conflicts of interest.
Through an accident of history, the Agriculture Committee has oversight over many matters concerning derivatives, since the instruments were initially designed as insurance products to help farmers manage risk.
Deregulation also ruled out most federal oversight of "derivatives"—credit default swaps and other financial instruments that derive their value from underlying securities.
