[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 48 (Tuesday, April 16, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E527]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E527]]



                     THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY ACT

                                 ______


                           HON. LARRY COMBEST

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, April 15, 1996

  Mr. COMBEST. Mr. Speaker, I have introduced today the Intelligence 
Community Act. This bill represents an important stage in our 
committee's major project, IC21: The Intelligence Community in the 21st 
Century.
  The Intelligence Community Act makes comprehensive changes in how we 
manage intelligence. I would like to outline for my colleagues the 
principles that have led to this legislation.
  First and foremost, the United States continues to need a strong, 
highly capable and increasingly flexible intelligence community. Our 
national security concerns are more varied and in many ways more 
complex than they were during the cold war.
  The United States needs an intelligence community that is more 
corporate, i.e., one that works better together as a more coherent 
enterprise aiming toward a single goal the delivery of time 
intelligence to policy makers at various levels.
  A key issue is opportunity, not reform. In the aftermath of our cold 
war victory we are more secure than we have been since 1940. This is a 
good time to update and modernize intelligence.
  IC21 is not a budget or staffing exercise. It is an effort to 
ascertain the type of intelligence community we will need as we enter 
the next century. Issues of cost and size should be debated during the 
regular legislative budget deliberations.
  Finally, the focus must be on where the intelligence community needs 
to be in the next 10 to 15 years, not a snapshot of where we are today.
  With these principles--flexibility, ``corporateness,'' opportunity, 
future vision--in mind, the Intelligence Community Act proposes several 
changes. Among them are:
  A more clearly defined central role for the Director of Central 
Intelligence [DCI] as head of the intelligence community, including 
expanded authority over resources and personnel. The DCI would also 
continue to be directly responsible for the CIA, clandestine services 
and the community management staff.
  Re-establishing the Committee on Foreign Intelligence within the 
National Security Council, to provide regular guidance and feed back to 
the DCI.
  Creating a second Deputy DCI. One Deputy DCI would run CIA, the other 
would run the community management staff, thus giving the DCI greater 
back-up and support for this two major responsibilities--the CIA and 
the intelligence community.
  The Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency [DIA] would be 
designated as the Director of Military Intelligence, the senior 
uniformed military intelligence officer.
  CIA would be confirmed as the premier all-source analytical agency. 
DIA continues to be the focal point for managing Defense all-source 
analysis.
  The Clandestine Service, comprising current CIA and Defense 
clandestine human collectors, would be combined into a single entity 
and separated from CIA.
  A new Technical Collection Agency [TCA] would manage the technical 
collection activities of signals, imagery and measurement, and 
signatures intelligence.
  A new Technology Development Office [TDO] would manage intelligence 
community research and development.
  The current National Intelligence Council would become the National 
Intelligence Evaluation Council, with the key responsibility of making 
sure that intelligence means and ends are correlated, and that every 
effort is made to provide the best intelligence to policy makers.
  IC21 also comprises a number of nonlegislative proposals that will be 
found in the unclassified staff studies, which would be available later 
this week.
  I want to thank the staff members of the Permanent Select Committee 
on Intelligence who have devoted much of the last year to this effort. 
The bill I have introduced today is a testament to their hard work and 
to their vision.
  I urge my colleagues to look over this bill carefully, and the staff 
studies as well. The staff of the intelligence committee is always 
available for questions and consultation.
  This is a daunting agenda and an important one. Informal discussions 
among the staff of interested congressional committees in the House and 
Senate and with the executive indicate agreement on many of the 
principles I have outlined. I optimistically look forward to working 
with my colleagues over the next few months to pass a bill that will 
give us the intelligence community we will need as we enter the 21st 
century.

                          ____________________