What is the Senate Intelligence Committee?

close

Video

What is the Senate Intelligence Committee?

The Senate Intelligence Committee has played a crucial role in investigating some of our nation’s most important issues and activities. Here’s what you need to know about this powerful committee.

The Obama administration was “frozen” in combating 2016 Russian election meddling, according to a new report released on Feb. 6 by the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The panel released the third volume of its five-part report on the committee’s yearslong bipartisan investigation into Russian interference in the last presidential election.

Since the news of Russian interference broke, the intelligence committee has played an integral role in investigating the election tampering.

Here’s what you need to know about the committee:

Who is on the committee?

Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., heads the intelligence committee as its chairman with Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., as its vice chair.

The committee makeup dictates that it has eight senators from the majority party and seven from the minority party.

TRUMP AND THE RUSSIA INVESTIGATION: WHAT TO KNOW

The seven Republicans on the committee are: James Risch of Idaho, Marco Rubio of Florida, Susan Collins of Maine, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, John Cornyn of Texas and Ben Sasse of Nebraska.

The six Democrats on the committee are: Dianne Feinstein of California, Ron Wyden of Oregon, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Angus King of Maine, Kamala Harris of California and Michael Bennet of Colorado.

Two members — one from each side of the aisle — from the Appropriations, Armed Services, Foreign Relations and Judiciary Committees are included on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

What does the committee do?

The committee was created in 1976 to “oversee and make continuing studies of the intelligence activities and programs of the United States government” and to “submit to the Senate appropriate proposals for legislation and report to the Senate concerning such intelligence activities and programs,” according to its website.

SENATORS EXPAND RUSSIA INVESTIGATION AMID SCRUTINY OF HOUSE PROBE

It also serves to “provide vigilant legislative oversight over the intelligence activities of the United States to assure that such activities are in conformity with the Constitution and the laws of the United States.”

What’s the committee’s role in the Russia investigation?

The Senate Intelligence Committee announced in January 2017 that it would launch an investigation into Russia’s involvement in the presidential election.

The investigation is to include “counterintelligence concerns related to Russia and the 2016 U.S. election, including any intelligence regarding links between Russia and individuals associated with political campaigns.”

FLYNN TO TURN OVER SUBPOENAED DOCUMENTS TO SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE

“After discovering the existence, if not the full scope, of Russia’s election interference efforts in late 2016, the Obama Administration struggled to determine the appropriate response,” committee Chairman Burr said in a statement on Feb. 6. “Frozen by ‘paralysis of analysis,’ hamstrung by constraints both real and perceived, Obama officials debated courses of action without truly taking one.”

Committee Ranking Member Warner said he hoped the panel’s findings would “resonate with lawmakers, national security experts and the American public.”

“There were many flaws with the U.S. response to the 2016 attack, but it’s worth noting that many of those were due to problems with our own system — problems that can and should be corrected,” Warner said.

Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.