[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 61 (Wednesday, April 28, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S2753]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                    TRIBUTE TO ARTHUR M. CUMMINGS II

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I rise today to acknowledge the 
extraordinary work of Arthur M. Cummings II, who has served with 
distinction for more than 20 years with the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation.
  Mr. Cummings was appointed on January 9, 2008 as executive assistant 
director of the FBI's National Security branch. In that position, Mr. 
Cummings worked diligently to oversee the FBI's counterterrorism, 
counterintelligence, weapons of mass destruction and intelligence 
programs, as well as the Terrorist Screening Center. His outstanding 
work leading the FBI in the coordination and liaison with the U.S. 
Director of National Intelligence and the rest of the Intelligence 
community contributed greatly to the FBI and the entire intelligence 
field. Mr. Cummings brought to the job a wealth of investigative and 
managerial experience.
  Since becoming an FBI special agent in 1987, Mr. Cummings was 
assigned to five field offices and to the Counterterrorism Division at 
FBI headquarters. He managed ounterterrorism, counterintelligence, 
violent crimes and drug programs in several field offices, and had 
deployed overseas to support several major counterterrorism 
investigations.
  Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Mr. Cummings 
played an instrumental role in the reorganization of the FBI's 
counterterrorism program and later served as chief of the 
Counterterrorism Operational Response Section, responsible for the 
development and oversight of FBI operations in foreign theaters such as 
Afghanistan. In 2003, Mr. Cummings became Chief of the International 
Terrorism Operations Section, responsible for developing and managing 
FBI strategy and operations directed against al-Qaida and its 
affiliated organizations and networks. Mr. Cummings also served in 
2004-05 as deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center, 
NCTC, a multiagency organization dedicated to eliminating the terrorist 
threat to U.S. interest domestically and abroad.
  After his tenure at NCTC, Mr. Cummings was named special agent-in-
charge of the Counterterrorism Division and Intelligence branch of the 
FBI's Washington field office.
  In recognition of his accomplishments, Mr. Cummings was awarded the 
2004 Attorney General's Award for Exceptional Service and the 2006 
Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executive. Mr. Cummings is a 
former Navy SEAL and speaks Mandarin Chinese. He is a graduate of the 
University of California in San Diego.
  I, along with all of my Senate colleagues, congratulate Arthur on his 
well-deserved retirement after such a distinguished career.

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