[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 82 (Wednesday, June 19, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5774-S5775]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. FEINSTEIN:
  S. 2645. A bill to establish the Director of National Intelligence as 
head of the intelligence community, to modify and enhance authorities 
and responsibilities relating to the administration of intelligence and 
the intelligence community, and for other purposes; to the Select 
Committee on Intelligence.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I rise today to offer the Intelligence 
Community Leadership Act of 2002. This legislation creates the position 
of Director of National Intelligence to lead a true intelligence 
community and to coordinate our intelligence and anti-terrorism efforts 
and help assure that the sort of communication problems that prevented 
the various elements of our intelligence community from working 
together effectively before September 11 never happen again.
  While this bill will certainly not solve every problem within the 
intelligence community, I believe it to be a necessary first step 
towards getting our intelligence house in order.
  The National Security Act of 1947, which created the bulk of our cold 
war era national security apparatus, created both the Director of the 
Central Intelligence Agency and the Director of Central Intelligence, 
of which the CIA is but one component, as two positions occupied by one 
person.
  As Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, the person in this 
position is the CEO of the Agency charged with collecting human 
intelligence, centrally analyzing all intelligence collected by the 
U.S. government, and conducting covert action.
  As head of the intelligence community, which also includes the 
Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the National 
Reconnaissance Office, National Imagery and Mapping Agency, and the 
intelligence-gathering elements of the FBI, as well as others, this 
person is responsible for coordinating a multitude of agencies and 
harnessing their efforts to secure the overall needs of U.S. national 
security.
  Although this structure served as well enough in the cold war, it is, 
in my view, far from perfect, and, put

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bluntly, I do not believe that giving both jobs to one person makes 
sense.
  Moreover, just as the particular needs of the superpower rivalry of 
the cold war drove the national security structure and apparatus put 
into place by the National Security Act of 1947, so, too, should the 
intelligence and anti-terrorism challenges that our country now faces 
in the post-9-11 world drive the creation of new national security 
structures adequate to the new challenge.
  The President, in proposing the creation of the Department of 
Homeland Security has addressed part of this challenge. But the 
administration's plan does not do enough to address the need to better 
coordinate our intelligence and anti-terrorism efforts.
  To start to address these problems the Intelligence Community 
Leadership Act of 2002 splits the current position of Director of 
Central Intelligence, currently held by one individual, who is tasked 
with running the CIA and the intelligence community as a whole, into 
two positions: a Director of National Intelligence, DNI, to lead the 
Intelligence Community and a Director of the Central Intelligence 
Agency to run the CIA.
  It may appear somewhat paradoxical to argue that in order to assure 
closer and better coordination within and across our intelligence 
community the current position of the Director of Central Intelligence 
should be split, but this is, in fact, the case.
  As a practical matter, the demands of these two full time jobs on the 
time and attention of any person, no matter how skilled in management, 
are overwhelming.
  Indeed, running the intelligence community and running the CIA are 
both important enough to be full time jobs.
  That was true before September 11, and it is especially true after 
September 11.
  Even if one person could handle both jobs and reconcile the inherent 
conflicts, there would remain the perception that he or she is favoring 
either the community or the Agency.
  That is not a formula which is well-suited to lead to a seamless and 
fully integrated intelligence community providing optimum analytic 
product to national decision makers or assuring that critical 
intelligence missions are properly allocated and resourced.
  Specifically, then, this legislation would create the new position of 
Director of National Intelligence, DNI, a new independent head of the 
intelligence community with the proper and necessary authority to 
coordinate activities, direct priorities, and create the budget for our 
nation's national intelligence community.
  The DNI would be responsible for all of the functions now performed 
by the Director of Central Intelligence in his role as head of the 
intelligence community, a separate individual would be Director of the 
CIA.
  Nominated by the President, confirmed by the Senate, and serving a 
ten-year term, the DNI would be insulated from the vagaries of politics 
and specifically empowered to create the national intelligence budget 
in conjunction with the various intelligence agencies within our 
government.
  The DNI would be able to transfer personnel and funds between 
intelligence agencies as necessary to carry out the core functions of 
the intelligence community, without the need to seek permission from 
individual agency heads.
  The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, DCIA, freed from the 
double burden as head of the intelligence community, would then be able 
to concentrate on the critical missions of the CIA alone: Assure the 
collection of intelligence from human sources, and that intelligence is 
properly correlated, evaluated, and disseminated throughout the 
intelligence community and to decision makers.
  The critical policy and resource decisions of the President's 
proposed Department of Homeland Defense will only be as good as the 
intelligence which informs those decisions.
  Whatever the other preliminary lessons we may draw from the ongoing 
inquiry into the September 11 attacks, one thing is perfectly clear: we 
need to better coordinate our intelligence and anti-terrorism efforts.
  If the new Department, and the President and Members of Congress, are 
going to be able to get the sort of intelligence we need to both 
safeguard our citizens and protect American national security 
interests, we need to address the structural problems that exist today 
with our intelligence community.
  I believe a first step in finding a solution to this problem is 
relatively simple, enact legislation that would require the head of the 
intelligence community and the head of the CIA to be two different 
people.
  That is what this legislation would do, and I urge my colleagues to 
join me both on this legislation, and in considering other reforms 
which may also be necessary to reformulate of intelligence community to 
meet the challenges of the new era.
                                 ______