[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 32 (Tuesday, March 2, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2154-S2156]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           EXECUTIVE SESSION

  Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
immediately proceed to executive session to consider the following 
nomination on the Executive Calendar: No. 9.
  I finally ask unanimous consent that the nomination be confirmed, the 
motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, any statements relating to 
the nomination appear at this point in the Record, the President be 
immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then return 
to legislative session.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senate proceeded to consider the nomination.
  Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I rise today to urge my colleagues to vote 
in favor of the nomination of James M. Simon, Jr., to be the Assistant 
Director of Central Intelligence for Administration. As part of the 
Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997 (S. 1718), the 
Senate Created the Office of the Director of Central Intelligence 
(ODCI), clarified the DCI's responsibilities for managing the 
Intelligence Community, and crated three new leadership positions in 
the ODCI: the Assistant Director of Central Intelligence

[[Page S2155]]

(ADCI) for Collection, the Assistant Director of Central Intelligence 
for Analysis and Production, and the Assistant Director of Central 
Intelligence for Administration. According to the Act, the ADCIs were 
to be appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
  At Conference, the House agreed to create the three new positions 
provided that the position of Deputy Director of Central Intelligence 
for Community Management (DDCI/CM) also be created as a position 
requiring the advise and consent of the Senate. Therefore the 
Conference Report included the three ADCI positions and added the DDCI/
CM position within he Office of the DCI. The ADCIs report directly to 
the DDCI/CM. This new leadership structure was enacted into law by P.L. 
104-293.
  The intent was to create a ``Goldwater-Nichols'' equivalent 
legislation for the intelligence Community by breaking down the 
barriers to effective community management erected by the very powerful 
directors of various intelligence agencies. In many cases, these 
directors act unilaterally on the day-to-day decisions concerning 
collection, production, and administration within the Community. On May 
22, 1998, the Committee favorably reported the nomination of Joan 
Dempsey to be the first DDCI/CM. The Senate confirmed her on May 22, 
1998.
  A great deal of the responsibility for management improvement within 
the Intelligence Community will lie with the Assistant Director of 
Central Intelligence for Administration. Therefore, the position 
requires a strong and determined individual that is prepared to 
confront and overcome the inevitable resistance of an entrenched and 
calcified bureaucracy.
  Mr. James M. Simon, Jr., a career intelligence officer, was nominated 
by the President to be the first Assistant Director of Central 
Intelligence for Administration, and the Senate Select Committee on 
Intelligence held open hearings on his nomination on February 4, 1999. 
On February 24, 1999, the Committee voted to favorably report the 
nomination of Mr. Simon to he full Senate.
  Mr. Simon was born in Montgomery, Alabama on 1 July 1947. He is 
married to Susan Woods of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
  Mr. Simon was commissioned in the US Army in 1969, retiring in 1997 
from the active reserve. Trained as a signal officer and in 
intelligence, he has commanded a SIGINT/EW company and has been 
operations officer of a psychological warfare battalion. He is a 
graduate of the Military Intelligence Officers Advanced Course, the 
Command and General Staff College, and has completed the Security 
Management Course from the national War College.
  After discharge, Mr. Simon became a research intern at Radio Free 
Europe and served as teaching assistant to the Dean of the University 
of Southern California's Graduate Program in International Relations in 
Germany prior to returning to the United States to study for a Ph.D.
  Mr. Simon has a B.A. in political science from the University of 
Alabama and a M.A. in international relations from the University of 
Southern California. He held both Herman and Earhart fellowships while 
pursuing a Ph.D at USC with emphasis in national security, bureaucracy, 
Soviet studies, and Marxism-Leninism. He has given lectures at Harvard, 
Cornell, Utah State, the Joint Military Intelligence College, the 
Command and General Staff College, the Navy War College, the Air War 
College, and the national War College. For two years, he taught Soviet 
war fighting at he Air University's course for general officers.
  Mr. Simon left USC before completing his dissertation and joined the 
CIA in 1975 through its Career Training Program. He served briefly in 
the clandestine service before joining he Directorate of Intelligence's 
Office of Strategic Research as a military analyst specializing in 
tactics and doctrine. He served as chief of a current intelligence 
branch as well as of two branches concerned with Soviet military 
strategy, doctrine, and plans. From 1986 to 1990 he was in charge of 
the intelligence community organization responsible for asking the 
imagery constellation. In 1990, he was assigned as the senior 
intelligence representative to the US delegation for the Conventional 
Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty in Vienna where he was principal 
negotiator for the Treaty's information exchange protocol. After 
ratification, in 1991, Mr. Simon was reassigned as Chief of ACIS Rhein 
Main in Frankfurt; the Community's facility responsible for the 
preparation, debriefing, and reporting of information gained by arms 
control inspection teams throughout Europe. In 1993, Mr. Simon became 
chief of a division in the Office of European Analysis and in 1996 was 
named Chief of the Collection Requirements and Evaluation Staff.
  The Intelligence Committee believes that Mr. Simon is well qualified 
for this new position. Accordingly,I again urge my colleagues to 
support this nomination and vote in favor of the Nominee.
  Mr. KERREY. Mr. President, I rise to join Chairman Shelby in 
recommending to the Senate that Mr. James M. Simon be confirmed as the 
new Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Administration. Mr. 
Simon has demonstrated the essential qualities required for this 
position, and I believe the Director of Central Intelligence has acted 
wisely in proposing to the President Mr. Simon's nomination.
  I am glad the Director of Central Intelligence is fulfilling one of 
the obligations imposed by the Fiscal Year 1997 Intelligence 
Authorization Act. In that Act, Congress--after extended discussions 
among the relevant committees--created a new management structure for 
the Office of the DCI. That structure included the new positions of 
Assistant Directors of Central Intelligence--one for intelligence 
collection, one for intelligence analysis, and one for community 
administration. The nomination to be considered by the Senate, the 
Assistant Director for Administration, will help to play an important 
role in ensuring the Intelligence Community is effectively managed.
  To date, the DCI has taken the interim steps of appointing acting 
Assistant Directors for collection and for analysis. I expect 
Presidential nominations for these positions will be forthcoming soon. 
I must say, the Senate's wisdom in the Fiscal Year 1997 Intelligence 
Authorization Act has been confirmed by the DCI's interim appointments. 
Prior to the appointments of Mr. Charles Allen and Mr. John Gannon, 
Congress and the American people looked to the DCI to manage both the 
collection of intelligence information and the analysis of that 
information. Without any assistance in these areas, it was literally 
his personal responsibility. When the intelligence community fails to 
collect adequate information to prevent policy-makers from being 
surprised, Congress and the American people blame the DCI. Further, 
when the intelligence community fails to marshal its resources to 
analyze tough intelligence targets, Congress and the American people 
again blame the DCI. The blame was clear, for example, in last year's 
Indian nuclear test incident. Affixing the responsibility on the DCI 
was warranted, but he did not have the management structure in place to 
help him fulfill his responsibilities. The Fiscal Year 1997 
Intelligence Authorization Act created a structure to help the DCI 
discharge his responsibilities and, following the Indian nuclear tests, 
the DCI began filling the new structure. So far, the results of Mr. 
Allen's and Mr. Gannon's work demonstrate that community-wide 
coordination is appropriate and sorely needed.
  Mr. Simon is eminently qualified. He is a career intelligence 
officer. He has demonstrated throughout his career the ability to make 
tough calls and to be held accountable for those calls. In his most 
recent assignment as the head of the CIA's Requirements Evaluation 
Staff, he has taken on a task to fix something that has long been 
broken. He is working on a way to place a value on the different kinds 
of intelligence we collect. To the uninitiated this may sound fairly 
unimportant and, perhaps, even easy. But is not. It is hard because it 
directly challenges the directors of the heads of the agencies within 
the Intelligence Community. For example, it forces the head of signals 
intelligence to justify the quality of his efforts relative to the 
efforts of another agency that controls human intelligence. It has a 
similar effect on judging the value of satellite collection relative to 
the other ways we obtain

[[Page S2156]]

our intelligence information. No agency director likes this evaluation 
because it forces questions to be answered on such fundamental issues 
as to whether or not community-wide budget and personnel resources are 
being directed in the right areas. Directors naturally resist a 
comparison of the value of their agency's work versus the value of the 
work of other agencies. Nonetheless, Mr. Simon chose to take on the 
agency heads in the Intelligence Community because it was the right 
thing to do.
  The DCI has made an excellent choice in recommending Mr. Simon to the 
President. Mr. Simon should be confirmed by the Senate. I believe his 
services as the Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for 
Administration will have a significant and lasting impact on the 
Intelligence Community. I urge my colleagues to support this 
nomination.
  The nomination considered and confirmed follows:


                          central intelligence

       James M. Simon, Jr., of Alabama, to be Assistant Director 
     of Central Intelligence for Administration. (New Position)

                          ____________________