straightUp Loc: California

As a matter of fact, they can and often do... I will explain, but first, let me say that I was referring to operations... The NSA (and the military as you might already know) operates under the guidance of the Executive Branch. But I'm SO glad you brought up funding, because so many people don't get this... There are essentially two types of funding, which politicians often refer to as "online" and "offline".

Online funding is the process by which Congress decides how much tax money (if any) will be allocated to the expense. This is the process defined by our Constitution that we learn about in school.

Offline funding, on the other hand, is the process by which the President BORROWS money. He tells the Treasury Department (which also operates under the Executive Branch) to issue bonds and then asks the Federal Reserve (which does not operate under ANY branch of the government) to purchase them. Since the Federal Reserve has the unconstitutional power to print money, they just enter in some digits in their computers and *poof* the money appears out of thin air, they buy the bonds and the Treasury funds the expense. This is the process by which Bush funded 90% of his wars...
AND the process by which the national debt grows...
AND the process by which Republicans are able to spend as much, sometimes more than the Democrats while cutting taxes at the same time and pretending to be fiscally responsible...
AND since Congress is not involved, offline funding doesn't draw much attention which makes the illusion even easier to pull off.

Sorry, but some things have to be said.