“Who’s keeping watch of the National Security Agency?” asks The Intercept . “In Congress, the answer in more and more cases is that the job is going to former lobbyists for NSA contractors and other intelligence community insiders.”  

“The Intercept reviewed the new gatekeepers in Congress, the leading staffers on the committees overseeing intelligence and surveillance matters, and found a large number of lobbyists and consultants passing through the revolving door between the intelligence community and the watchdogs who purportedly oversee the intelligence community.”  

“Lobbyist influence is a particularly sensitive issue when it comes to intelligence committees, since those committees oversee secret ‘black budgets’ in which money is disbursed with greatly reduced public oversight. The potential for self dealing is significant.”