But they also acknowledge that they face many of the same institutional barriers their Republican predecessors did and must walk a fine line between vigorous oversight and unpopular "Gotcha" politics.

"We will work very hard to get (the 2007 Intelligence Authorization bill) passed as quickly as possible once the committee is able to meet next year," a senior aide to incoming intelligence committee Chairman Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., told United Press International.

The bill was voted unanimously out of the Senate committee earlier this year, and the House passed its version, but the GOP Senate leadership never brought it to the floor, fearing it would become a magnet for controversial amendments.

"We are working with (incoming Senate Majority Leader) Sen. (Harry) Reid, D-Nev.," to get the bill, which will have to be re-introduced in both chambers -- to the floor, said the aide.

The Senate version of the bill would set up an inspector general for the new director of national intelligence; strengthen counter-terrorism information-sharing by temporarily suspending parts of the Privacy Act; make the directors of the three biggest-spending military intelligence agencies subject to Senate confirmation; and declassify the total annual amount of U.S. spending on intelligence -- the so-called "top line" of the budget.

It also contains language clarifying what kinds of intelligence programs can be briefed only to the so-called Gang of Eight -- the top lawmaker from each party in the House and Senate and on both intelligence committees. Democrats and many Republicans say the administration has abused its authority to limit briefings.

A spokeswoman for Rockefeller's counterpart -- incoming chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas -- said it was too early to comment on the possibility of resurrecting the bill.

Neither lawmaker was available for interview, but both have also pledged vigorous oversight of the administration's use of the National Security Agency to conduct warrantless wiretapping of terror suspects, and the CIA's program of detention and interrogation of so-called "high value" detainees.

"We haven't done our job as a Congress in oversight. That's going to change in January," Reyes told the C-SPAN television show "Washington Journal."

"We will be much more aggressive" than the Republicans were, said the Rockefeller aide. "We will not be worrying about whether the answers to the questions we are asking will embarrass the administration."

Republicans denied that the committee had soft-pedaled oversight, and said Democrats would face many of the same barriers their predecessors had in seeking to oversee such secret and controversial programs.

"The president controls access to classified information," said one well-placed GOP government official, adding that committee staff had been engaged in a constant tug-of-war with the administration about who was allowed to sit in on briefings. "The dynamic for information access is not going to change" in the new Congress.

The Rockefeller aide said Democrats would make more use of the leverage and bargaining tools they had in dealing with the administration, and would be "less inclined (than our Republican predecessors) to simply accept the access granted."

Charles Battaglia, a former Democratic staff director for the committee, told UPI that the administration had been far too restrictive in what it let members and staff have access to.

"He said the committee was created so the public could be reassured that even the government's darkest secrets were subject to some oversight.

"If the committee is to do its job, they should have access to everything short of the actual identities of agents" spying for the United States, said Battaglia.

Republicans maintain that since the whole committee has now been briefed on both the wiretapping and interrogation programs there is little more to do.

"Everything is known" about the programs, said the well-placed official.

Rockefeller spokeswoman Wendy Morigi, while saying it was too early to comment in detail on the senator's oversight plans, disputed that, calling the comment "off base."

"The reality is, (Rockefeller) has made repeated requests to the National Security Agency, the Justice Department, the FBI, the director of national intelligence and the White House for a lengthy list of documents and other information, including the presidential orders authorizing the (NSA warrantless wiretapping) program, and these have been denied without justification," she told UPI.

Rockefeller "has said on numerous occasions that he will continue to press for this information," she concluded.

Elaborating, the Rockefeller aide explained that the information requested included "basic questions about the efficacy of the program (and) ... metrics" which would allow lawmakers judge its effectiveness. Documents requested included basic texts like the original authorization for the program.

Rockefeller told National Public Radio recently that the NSA program "has produced valuable information."

But he added, "The trick is not just, does it produce intelligence, but does it do it in a legal, responsible and ethical way? And that is the balance which I think has gone too far too aggressively on the part of the administration, and which we in the next Congress are going to have to try to sort out."

The GOP official said the Democrats would have to pick their battles. "The question is: What are they prepared to subpoena ... and what makes them think they'll win" if the administration tries to fight such a move?

Democrats acknowledge that they need to walk a fine line between robust oversight and enforcing accountability on the one hand, and "Gotcha" politics which are likely to be especially unpopular in the national security arena.

"Our great nation did not elect us to look backwards," said Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., recently.

Meehan, tipped as the incoming chairman of the new House Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, said Democrats were "committed to looking forward and solving the problems previous Congresses have failed to address without miring us in the counter-productive assignment of blame."

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