Matthew Young Pollard Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2018 and 2019

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. HASTINGS. Mr. Chairman, my staff and I worked with Democratic staff members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and received input from the majority staff to craft what I believe is a commonsense amendment that will increase diversity throughout the intelligence community.

Mr. Chair, I just want to depart from my prepared remarks to say a word about the young man who is seated with me, Tony Matthews. It is a good indication of what the Brookings Institution does when they send us fellows from either the Democratic or Republican side, and I am very pleased that he has been with my office and, in many respects, is the author of this amendment.

The amendment directs the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to, in consultation with heads of other intelligence community agencies, create and implement a plan that will successfully expand the intelligence community's recruitment efforts so that rural and underserved regions in the United States are more fully represented in these efforts.

It is my belief that this amendment will provide a unique opportunity for the intelligence community agencies to actively join forces in order to broaden their respective recruitment efforts and, by so doing, increase the diversity among their ranks. Although we have seen improvement in some areas--for instance, an increase in minority hiring for fiscal year 2017 over that of fiscal year 2016--we have also seen a disappointing decrease in the percentage of women hired over that same period of time. I believe that we can do better in both metrics, and I think one smart way of doing that is getting agencies to broaden their searches geographically.

This country's strength is born from its dedication to the rule of law, the belief that the best form of government is one that is of the people, by the people, and for the people--and from its diversity.

It is time for our intelligence community agencies to more fully commit to reaching all American people in an effort to let them know that inspiring and important work awaits them in the intelligence community. Indeed, by more fully tapping into this diversity, we can be assured of at least one result: the strengthening of our intelligence community. If the intelligence community is to succeed in its global mission, it must have a global force.

Mr. Chairman, I urge a ``yes'' vote on my amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source