| Offices : Beckley • Charleston • Fairmont • Martinsburg • Washington, DC | E-mail Senator Rockefeller |
February 14, 2008
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: Open Hearing on DNI Authorities
Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV
The Committee meets today in open session for a hearing on the authorities of the Director of National Intelligence.
Our witness today is the current Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Mike McConnell.
Seated behind Director McConnell are a number of his key staff, and we have made space for them at the witness table in case he would like to invite any of them up to help answer questions at any point during the hearing.
Congress created the position of Director of National Intelligence, or DNI, because most of us felt that it was no longer practical to expect the head of the CIA to also manage the entire U.S. Intelligence Community.
Additionally, we believed that the leader of the Intelligence Community needed to have more authorities than those possessed by the Director of Central Intelligence position in order to effectively manage and direct the resources against the intelligence priorities our nation faces.
The Intelligence Reform Act passed in December 2004 was the product of months of heated debate, and many aspects of it are the product of compromise rather than consensus.
There were several points about which the House and the Senate could not agree, and so rather than let negotiations collapse, certain issues were left ambiguous or unresolved.
Some of us worry that Congress may not have given the DNI enough authority to match his enormous responsibilities. This is not to say that the authorities assigned to the position under the reform law do not give the Director a great deal of power. They do.
The DNI determines the budget for the Intelligence Community, and he has the authority to transfer money and positions from one intelligence agency to another.
Additionally, the DNI directly operates many critical elements of the Intelligence Community, such as the National Counterterrorism Center, the National Counterproliferation Center, and the National Intelligence Council, which is responsible for preparing National Intelligence Estimates.
The Senate Intelligence Committee is responsible for conducting oversight of the Intelligence Community, and we take that responsibility very seriously.
This means that we have an obligation to monitor the DNI’s activities and evaluate whether he has all the appropriate tools and authorities that he needs to succeed.
With three years of experience under our belt, it is time for the Committee to assess whether the reform legislation has fulfilled its promise and whether additional changes in the law should be considered.
For example, one issue before the Committee is the proper relationship of the DNI to the various elements of the Intelligence Community.
Most of these elements are located in different Cabinet departments, and it is the DNI’s job to make sure that they all work together in a unified effort – including those agencies, such as the NSA and NRO, which reside within the Department of Defense.
The Committee must also consider whether the budget and personnel authorities that Congress has given the DNI are sufficient.
The Intelligence Reform Act gives the DNI significant power to move resources from one intelligence agency to another, but if bureaucratic roadblocks cause every transfer to take six months, then this power is not as useful as was intended.
In sum, the DNI exists because Congress and the American people wanted the Intelligence Community to function as a unified whole, and because we wanted someone to be accountable for the Intelligence Community’s collective effectiveness – both its successes and its failures.
I firmly believe that Admiral Mike McConnell, the current DNI, is absolutely the right man for the job, so if his ability to lead and manage the Intelligence Community is being hampered, we need to know about it and consider options for eliminating these roadblocks.
If, on the other hand, he is able to do his job efficiently and effectively, then that is an encouraging sign that his authorities may be aligned properly.
Before turning to the Director for his testimony, I recognize Vice Chairman Bond for any opening remarks he wishes to make.
###
E-mail Senator Rockefeller | Click here for more contact information.