Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I want to thank my good friend the Senator from Oklahoma, who is also a member of the Intelligence Committee, a subject of which I am going to speak to, and I appreciate the courtesy of allowing me to go first.

Today, Mr. President, I rise to say a few words about someone who has been an essential part of the Senate community for many, many years.

I am proud to note that earlier this week--as a matter of fact, on Tuesday evening--with the support from the Senator from Oklahoma, the Senate unanimously confirmed the nomination of Mike Casey to serve as Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center. We know, at a time when the United States is facing tremendous foreign intelligence and security threats, it is important to have a Senate- confirmed leader as the head of the NCSC, which is charged with protecting against insider threats, supply chain risks, and other counterintelligence issues.

The truth is, the position has been vacant since the end of the last administration. So, as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I am glad that we will finally now have a Senate-confirmed leader in place to lead the efforts to protect against foreign threats, to protect U.S. critical infrastructure, to advance the counterintelligence and security mission, and--maybe most importantly--to be on constant call of the Senate Intelligence staff to make sure that efforts to reform security clearances is at the top of the agenda.

But while I recognize that this is a great step for our country and our national security, it is a real loss to me personally, to members on both sides of the aisle on the Intelligence Committee, and to our staff, because we are losing Mike Casey, who has been the staff director for the last 8 years. And while he doesn't look Medicare- eligible, the truth is, he has been working up here for 28 years, starting in the House of Representatives and, eventually, joining the staff of the House Armed Services Committee before Senator Feinstein brought him over to the upper Chamber as staff director for the Senate Intel Committee in 2016.

I have worked extraordinarily closely with Mike over my years as a member of the committee but particularly when I bumped up to the position of vice chair. I think a lot about our kind of bonding and, in many ways, I think of the committee's bonding when, under the able leadership of then-chairman Richard Burr, the committee took on the responsibility of the investigation into the outside interference of the 2016 national elections. Our staff and, at that point, the majority committee's staff worked so seamlessly together.

While we got a lot of grief from folks all across the political spectrum--and a lot of this was due to Mike Casey--one of the things that I was most proud of was, as a variety of people came before the committee to testify on what could have been, otherwise, a totally partisan matter as it was in the House of Representatives, witness after witness said they didn't know, as they were being questioned, whether they were being questioned by majority or minority staff. A lot of that was due to Mike Casey's leadership.

The truth, as well, is that Mike--I had to push him at times. You know, he used to think that the job of the Intelligence Committee was basically just to do oversight on the 17, 18, 19--depending on the week--number of IC Agencies that we oversee. He didn't realize that, actually, the IC's responsibility--and I know sometimes the Presiding Officer and I have had clashes--was literally everything that touched technology in our country.

Again, Mike, while sometimes reluctant, has stepped up to that task. And I am proud of the fact that it was our committee that initially worked on the CHIPS bill and that it was our committee that first pointed out some of the challenges with 5G and Huawei as well as some of the more recent work.

One of the ways we were able to do that--and we have got a lot of the committee staff behind us--is because, literally, Mike Casey knew everyone in the IC and the DOD. He knew where they were. He knew where the bodies were buried, both literally and figuratively, and could make sure that, as we tried to go off into other directions, that basic core function of oversight was never, never undermined. Again, he did this always--after a little nudging--in a bipartisan way.

I am extraordinarily proud of that and proud of the service that he has provided in educating me on a lot of issues that I was not that familiar with as I came on to the committee and in keeping our Intel Committee staff together. That bipartisan nature has continued under his leadership in our workings with Vice Chair Rubio and his team as well.

So, while we say goodbye to Mike, we also wish him well as he embarks on his critical new role. As Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, Mike will face many of the same challenges we have wrestled with on the Intelligence Committee.

As we all know, the truth is that national security is no longer simply about who has got the most tanks and guns and ships and planes. It really is about who is going to lead in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, 5G, cyber security, synthetic biology. All of these are areas in which Mike, in his new job, will also have to point out threats, both external and internal, to America's leadership.

He will--as I mentioned, he is committed--respond to our staff member John Rosenwasser at any moment, day or night, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, to make sure that we finally finish security clearance reform and make sure, in terms of insider threats, that we don't see repeats of what has happened, unfortunately, too many times. So while Mike Casey might be leaving our staff, it is safe to say he will not be leaving my speed dial.

We will miss you, Mike.

Most importantly, I give him these final words of advice: Don't screw it up.

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