On Friday, October 3, all eyes were on Washington, as the House passed the $700 billion bailout bill designed to head off an economic 9/11. Lost in the news that day was the Bush administration’s decision to release a new set of attorney general guidelines for the FBI’s domestic operations. This will almost certainly be the administration’s last major post-9/11 policy initiative before it leaves office.
The AG Guidelines, contained in a publicly-available document, are intended to govern how the Bureau goes about its business here in the United States. It sets out the Bureau’s responsibilities under existing laws and executive orders and spells out how its analytic, investigative, and intelligence activities are to be carried out to meet those tasks. Although Congress can certainly step in and legislate changes in how the FBI works, the guidelines themselves do not require congressional approval and will go into effect on December 1.
