Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008
Floor Speech
INTELLIGENCE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2008 -- (House of Representatives - May 10, 2007)
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Mr. THOMPSON of California. I thank the chairman for yielding.
Madam Chairman, I am pleased to stand in strong support of this authorization bill tonight. I believe that this bill strengthens our capabilities to recognize and counter threats to the United States, both terrorist threats from groups like al Qaeda and the strategic challenges present in regions all over the world, including the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. This bill ensures that U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan will continue to receive the intelligence support they need to conduct their missions.
The bill authorizes the largest intelligence budget ever. It also provides full funding for the intelligence programs related to Afghanistan and for U.S. efforts to counter terrorist threats.
Madam Chairman, terrorism and the war in Iraq are critical issues, and they have required intelligence agencies to divert resources away from other strategic challenges. This bill funds initiatives to collect better intelligence on those that pose threats to our country. It also adds funds to enhance coverage of other challenges, such as emerging threats in Africa and Latin America, and to ensure that America is not caught by surprise in the future.
The bill makes significant investments to improve the quality of intelligence analysts. It provides resources to send more analysts overseas so they can gain the real world experiences in the countries that they study. It provides funds for expanded foreign language training that we all agree is needed, and the development of advanced technical tools so both analysts and collectors can better do their jobs.
The bill makes us safer by adding resources for counterintelligence investigations, and these provisions will help mitigate efforts by our adversaries to steal classified information and advanced technologies, keeping the U.S. policy options open and preserving our military edge.
Despite these additions, the bill promotes efficiency and accountability by cutting programs that lack clear objectives and measurable results. It also requires the CIA Inspector General to audit covert action programs, ensuring regular oversight.
Madam Chair, this legislation helps us fight terrorists; it supports our troops; and it enhances U.S. intelligence capabilities throughout the world.
I support this bill, and I strongly recommend that our colleagues do as well.
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Mr. THOMPSON of California. Madam Chairman, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.
This Congress created the Director of National Intelligence so he and a core staff could manage the activities of the different intelligence agencies. Congress did not intend to create a new bureaucracy.
Nevertheless, the office has expanded in size. Many members of the Intelligence Committee, myself included, as well as other colleagues in the House, are concerned that this growth will complicate, rather than streamline, the activities of the intelligence communities. Some Members have proposed limiting the number of people who can work for the DNI in order to stem this growth.
But I believe that such a measure, while satisfying on the surface, would have harmful consequences. It would eliminate a large number of analysts and planners, the experts who actually perform the core intelligence functions, not middle managers and bureaucrats.
The harshest impact would fall on DNI elements like the National Counterterrorism Center, which analyzes terrorism information and plans counterterrorism operations. This would happen because there are plans in play to shift personnel to this specific task. If this other amendment were to pass, it would truncate these very important efforts. These are the people who play critical roles in our efforts to combat terrorism, and our operators around the world cannot do their jobs without this critical backstopping. Preventing the DNI from adding staff to these missions would gut key counterterrorism capabilities.
The real issue, though, is not simply the number of people who appear on the DNI's balance sheet, the challenge is to have fewer people sitting behind desks in Washington and to place more intelligence officers in the field. This is a goal that I think we all share, even those with a competing amendment. They need to be in the field where they can collect needed intelligence and where they can catch terrorists.
The Intelligence Authorization Act will fund increases in the number of intelligence collectors at many agencies, but there is still not enough. To push the Intelligence Committee to get its staff out of the office and into the field, the amendment that I am offering would freeze the number of people working for the DNI at the level specified in the fiscal year 2007 Intelligence Authorization Act that was passed by this House.
The freeze wouldn't be lifted until the Director of National Intelligence provides the committee, the Intelligence Committees, one, a report on the number of analysts and collectors in each element of the Intelligence Community, and two, a plan to maximize the number of collectors across the community. This plan must be provided within 120 days of enactment.
With this information, the Intelligence Committee will be able to work with the DNI to ensure that he has the right mix of collectors, analysts, technical experts and other staff, and we will be able to press the DNI and the individual intelligence agencies to accelerate the recruitment, the training and the deployment of core collectors.
This amendment will enhance congressional oversight of intelligence activities and result in improvements to the Intelligence Community's ability to collect critical intelligence.
I am willing to work with, and we have worked with my colleague and friend from the committee on this issue. I believe that this amendment is the one that will allow us to best collect the information so we can, in fact, put together the best policy for America.
Madam Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. THOMPSON of California. Madam Chairman, again, I just want to reiterate the fact that we all share the same goal, and that's to get these folks out from behind the desk and into the field. I have tremendous respect for my colleague and friend, Mr. Rogers. He actually has real time in the field doing this work. He knows how important that is to have folks out in the field.
As he and my other good friend and colleague, Mr. Hastings, has said, we all have the same goal, it's just, how do we get there?
We believe that by putting this freeze in place, requiring this information be provided to the committee, will allow us to best analyze this, know where these folks are and force the DNI to put them in the right spots.
The only other thing I would like to add is that it's important to note that the majority of this growth consists of transferring personnel who already work or should work for the DNI on to their books for better management and oversight.
I ask for your support of this amendment.
Madam Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
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