By IANS,
Washington : The US non-military intelligence budget totalled $49.8 billion in 2009, marking a $2-billion increase from the previous year, officials said.
The US government is required by law to reveal its non-military intelligence budget, but the amount spent on military intelligence remains classified.
Last month, however, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair told reporters the intelligence budget this year is about $75 billion, of which about $25 billion was allocated for military purposes.
Friday’s disclosure marks the third year the government released its non-military intelligence budget figure, Xinhua reported.
Over the years, the US intelligence community had been resisting efforts to reveal the number, arguing that enemies of the US could learn valuable information by watching trends in spending.
But in keeping with 9/11 commission recommendation, the Congress passed a law in 2007 mandating the public disclosure of the amount at the end of each fiscal year.
Specific details on how much each agency spends and on what remain classified.
The US spent $47.5 billion in non-military intelligence programmes in 2008 and $43.5 billion in 2007, according to the previous reports.