From the Congressional Glossary – Including Legislative and Budget Terms
Gang of Four
“Gang of Four” intelligence notifications generally are oral briefings of certain particularly sensitive non-covert action intelligence activities, including principally, but not exclusively, intelligence collection programs, that the intelligence community typically limits to the chairmen and ranking members of the two congressional intelligence committees. Gang of Four notifications are not based in statute but have constituted a practice generally accepted by the leadership of the intelligence committees and that is employed when the Intelligence Community believes a particular intelligence activity to be of such sensitivity that a restricted notification is warranted in order to reduce the risk of disclosure, inadvertent or otherwise.
Also see Congressional Leadership and Committees; Party Leaders and Leadership; § 8.170 Congress and Foreign Policy: Nonbinding Actions, in Congressional Deskbook.
More
- House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
- Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
- “‘Gang of Four’ Congressional Intelligence Notifications,” CRS Report R40698 (14-page PDF
) - “House Committees: Categories and Rules for Committee Assignments,” CRS Report 98-151 (8-page PDF)
- “Committee System: Rules Changes in the House, 104th Congress,” CRS Report 95-187 (5-page PDF)
- “House Subcommittees: Assignment Process,” CRS Report 98-610 (6-page PDF)
- “Subcommittees in the House of Representatives,” CRS Report 98-544 (4-page PDF)
- “House Leadership Structure: Overview of Party Organization,” CRS Report RS20930 (3-page PDF)
- “Committee Assignment Process in the U.S. Senate: Democratic and Republican Party Procedures,” CRS Report RL30743 (19-page PDF)
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