White House: Congress ‘Has a Very Important Oversight Role’ of Drone Programs

NN REPORTER: "Lastly, on this issue of revealing what happened. There’s been a flurry of statements this morning from members of Congress, not only joining president in offering condolences, but promising rigorous oversight from some of the relevant congressional committees. Does the White House feel that Congress has a role to play in figuring out what went wrong here and how to possibly prevent it from happening again?"
EARNEST: "Well, Josh, I can tell you that the president believes that Congress does have very important oversight role over these kinds of programs. That's why in president's National Defense University's speech that he delivered a couple of years ago, he made clear that when these kinds of terrorism operations are carried out, the relevant members of Congress are briefed about each operation. That is an indication of the seriousness with which the administration pursues cooperating with legitimate congressional oversight. I can tell you that as these intelligence assessments about the death of Dr. Weinstein and the ultimate high confidence assessments that he had been killed in the U.S. government operation was shared with the president, that information was also shared with relevant members of Congress."