Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2014 and 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I
want to join my colleagues in urging the House to support the 2015
Intelligence Authorization Act which has now returned to us from the
Senate, but before I address the substance of the bill, I would like to
congratulate Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Ruppersberger for their
extraordinary efforts to get this bill passed and to the President.
As a member of the Intelligence Committee, I know how hard they and
the staff have worked to make this happen, and I would especially like
to congratulate Chairman Rogers and wish him well as he prepares to
leave the House at the end of the year. It has been a great pleasure
working with you, and I wish you all the very best.
These are challenging days for America's intelligence officers and
analysts. As ISIS continues to threaten the Middle East; as Russia's
``little green men'' continue to coordinate attacks on the Ukrainian
Government; as North Korea's young, isolated, and often dangerously
erratic leader continues his behavior; and as the international
community continues its efforts to secure Iran's agreement to dismantle
its nuclear weapons program and infrastructure, our intelligence
professionals play a vital role in keeping us safe and secure.
Developing and maintaining actionable intelligence on ISIS is of
particular urgency. While the intelligence community has been following
ISIS' growth for some time, the group's takeover of a large swath of
Syria and Iraq has made it a top intelligence priority.
If we are to be effective in partnering with regional allies to
degrade and destroy ISIS, we need to be able to develop the very best
intelligence and accurate ground truth. That takes time, and it takes
assets--on the ground, in the air, in space--to collect information. It
also takes the world class analysts of our intelligence community to
turn that information into recommendations for policymakers.
We must also remain focused on Russian efforts to destabilize its
neighbors, particularly Ukraine, but also the Baltic States. Our
intelligence community has given us insight into Russian involvement in
these efforts and into the events that led to the tragic downing of the
Malaysian airliner last summer.
The bill also prioritizes vital efforts at nonproliferation and will
help give us the tools that we need to assess events on the ground in
North Korea and Iran and wherever there is a threat of WMD.
These are but a few of the important matters covered in the
Intelligence Authorization bill. As a member of the committee who has
been proud to work closely with both the chair and ranking member, I am
confident it supports our intelligence professionals while providing
oversight that is so critical to the proper functioning of our
intelligence agencies.

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