The Intelligence Community is subject to external oversight from the Executive and Legislative branches.

Within the Executive, the IC works closely with the National Security Council (NSC).Other Executive organizations involved in oversight include the following:

• The President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB): The PFIAB is an entity within the Executive Office of the President formed "to assess the quality, quantity, and adequacy" of intelligence collection, analysis, counterintelligence, and other activities of the IC. The PFIAB reports directly to the President, and provides recommendations for actions to improve and enhance the performance of intelligence efforts. It also examines issues raised by the President or the Director of National Intelligence and can make recommendations directly to the DNI. Membership of the PFIAB consists of not more that 16 persons appointed by the President.
  
  
• The President's Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB): Once a separate organization under the President, the IOB was made a standing committee of the PFIAB in 1993. The IOB is composed of four members of the PFIAB appointed by the Chairman of the PFIAB. The IOB conducts independent oversight investigations as required and reviews the oversight practices and procedures of the inspectors general and general counsels of intelligence agencies.
  
  
• The Office of Management and Budget (OMB): OMB is part of the Executive Office of the President. It reviews intelligence budgets in light of presidential policies and priorities, clears proposed testimony, and approves draft intelligence legislation for submission to Congress.

Within the Congress, principal oversight responsibility rests with the two intelligence committees. By law, the President must ensure that these two committees are kept "fully and currently" informed of the activities of the Intelligence Community, including any "significant anticipated intelligence activities." Notice is also required to be provided to both committees of all covert action programs approved by the President as well as all "significant intelligence failures."

• The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI): The membership of the SSCI has ranged from 13 to 17, with the majority party in Congress having one more member than the minority. Members of the SSCI serve 8-year terms. In addition to its role in annually authorizing appropriations for intelligence activities, the SSCI carries out oversight investigations and inquiries as required. It also handles presidential nominations referred to the Senate for the positions of DNI, Principle Deputy DNI, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Inspector General of CIA, and reviews treaties referred to the Senate for ratification as necessary to determine the ability of the Intelligence Community to verify the provisions of the treaty under consideration.
  
  
• House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI): The membership of the HPSCI is currently set at 19 members and is proportional to the partisan makeup of the entire House of Representatives. Members may be appointed for terms up to eight years. Like its Senate counterpart, the HPSCI conducts oversight investigations and inquiries in addition to processing the annual authorization of appropriations for intelligence.
  
  
• Other Committees: In addition to the intelligence committees, other congressional committees occasionally become involved in oversight matters by virtue of their overlapping jurisdictions and responsibilities. The armed services committees of each House, for example, exercise concurrent jurisdiction over DoD intelligence activities; and the judiciary committees in each House exercise concurrent jurisdiction over FBI intelligence activities.