The article Through the past darkly mentions the NRO budget being larger than the CIAs…interdasting.
Did a quick dig
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/national/black-budget/
U.S. spy agencies have built an intelligence-gathering colossus since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but remain unable to provide critical information to the president on a range of national security threats, according to the government’s top-secret budget.
https://www.c4isrnet.com/c2-comms/satellites/2019/02/07/trump-nominates-new-leader-for-spy-satellite-agency/
President Donald Trump has nominated a longtime NASA administrator to become the next director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), according to a Feb. 7 release from the White House.
Christopher Scolese, currently the director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, would replace Betty Sapp, who has been at the helm of NRO since 2012.
https://fas.org/irp/commission/budget.htm
Intelligence Agency Budgets:
Commission Recommends No Release
But Releases Them Anyway
The report of the Commission on the Roles and Capabilities of the United States Intelligence Community , "Preparing for the 21st Century: An App raisal of U.S. Intelligence," was released on March 1, 1996.
The report concluded in Chapter 13 The Cost of Intelligence that reductions in the overall intelligence budget were possible:
The Commission nonetheless believes the staff's review demonstrated that reductions to the existing and planned intelligence resources may be possible without damaging the nation's security…. the Commission believes cost savings can be achi eved if the Intelligence Community adopts the management practices and implements the cooperative arrangements summarized earlier in this chapter. Those actions, together with pruning unnecessary requirements and unproductive systems and activities, could free significant resources.
https://fas.org/irp/nro/commission/exec_sum.htm
Executive Summary
Changes in The National Security Environment
The Commission found that NRO reconnaissance satellites have had a crucially important role during the past four decades in providing American Presidents a decisive advantage in preserving the national security interests of the United States. These satellites, which can penetrate hostile and denied areas with no risk to life and rapidly deliver uniquely valuable information, have allowed a succession of Presidents to make informed decisions based on critical intelligence and to respond appropriately to major crises, threats and challenges to U.S. interests. Without them, America's history and the world's could have been dramatically different.
For 40 years, the NRO has pioneered technical marvels in support of space reconnaissance. Quite literally, the NRO's achievements in space have provided the nation its "eyes and ears" for: monitoring the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and compliance with arms control agreements; tracking international terrorists, narcotics traffickers and others who threaten American lives and interests around the world; providing operational intelligence and situational awareness to our armed forces in situations ranging from combat to peacekeeping; and helping to anticipate and cope with disasters, ranging from wildfires in the American West to volcanic eruptions in the Pacific to humanitarian crises in the Balkans.