The State of Intelligence's Union

Floor Speech

THE STATE OF INTELLIGENCE'S UNION

Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, it is 6 years after 9/11, and reform of the intelligence community continues to be a primary concern for all of us. At the swearing-in ceremony of Director Mike McConnell, President Bush outlined three main categories for improvement: the need to strengthen individual agencies, increase information sharing action and improve the quality of intelligence produced. I wish to discuss this morning what this means.

The intelligence community has established new hiring and employment reforms to strengthen the workforce. Under the direction of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), there is now a comprehensive intelligence community plan that focuses on hiring a more diverse workforce to address the critical need for variety in languages, backgrounds, and skills. He has also appointed a chief of equal employment opportunity and diversity, and has agreed to a set of wide-ranging recommendations that the diversity senior advisory panel made in their report: ``Diversity: A National Security Imperative for the Intelligence Community.''

The Director of National Intelligence is also establishing ``joint duty'' as a requirement for promotion to senior positions. This is imperative in transforming the culture to increase integration and a collaborative nature among agencies. It will also reduce ``stovepipe'' mentalities which hampered collection efforts pre-9/11. These are important reforms, Mr. Speaker, and good initiatives that have been undertaken to address the human resources challenges facing the intelligence community. I look forward to seeing the outcome of these reforms, and hope to see even more innovative programs to strengthen our human intelligence capabilities.

One of the critical lapses identified after September 11, particularly by the 9/11 Commission report, was the poor information sharing among agencies and departments. Recently there have been some improvements in this area. The National CounterTerrorism Center, NCTC, recently published a report entitled ``NCTC and Information Sharing: Five Years Since 9/11, a Progress Report.'' The NCTC reports that today, following many reforms, analysts have access to dozens of networks and information systems that they were previously denied. This access is across intelligence, law enforcement, military, and homeland security communities. This enormous increase of the amount of information, while ultimately beneficial, also raised the concern of becoming overwhelmed by the flood of this new information. Therefore, the NCTC is continuously exploring new technologies to help analysts manage these volumes of terrorism-related data.

The NCTC also reports that they host communitywide video teleconferences three times a day to ensure awareness of ongoing operations and emerging threats. Participants in these video teleconferences can correct misunderstandings, compare notes, and share best practice ideas to enhance the capabilities of all involved. Mr. Speaker, this is a vital component to the ability to detect and respond effectively in real time to emerging terrorism threats.

They have also created an online counterterrorism library allowing nonintelligence community agencies easier access to counterterrorism information. This library today hosts over 6,000 users, 6 million documents, and has over 60 departments and agencies that contribute information to its files.

Finally, the ODNI has reformed overseas collection efforts among agencies, focusing collection efforts on the stated needs and goals of the policymakers receiving the intelligence products. In a March 4 press release from the public affairs of the Office of Director of National Intelligence, ``The intelligence community has strengthened the quality of intelligence provided to policymakers through initiatives like the mission managers concept. Among the most experienced in the intelligence community, mission managers have highly developed analytical and collection management skills and they focus on the topics of highest interest to our policymakers. This strategy allows the intelligence community to identify collection gaps and address resources to cover those gaps, ensuring analysts have the required information to support policy decisionmakers.'' They have also streamlined production of National Intelligence Council (NIC) products, increasing output and minimizing delays in production time. They have included both more effective explanation behind judgments and the inclusion of alternative views of analysts, to incorporate a wide range of opinions and combat the dangers arising from ``group think.''

I look forward to monitoring the progress of these important first steps. However, it is vital that we maintain our momentum. As Director McConnell stated in his swearing-in speech, ``Taking advantage of these advances in technology, today's threats move at increasing speeds. The time needed to develop a terrorist plot, communicated around the globe, and put it into motion has been drastically reduced. The time line is no longer a calendar, it is a watch.''

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