[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 17 (Wednesday, February 1, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S589-S590]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO BRIGADIER GENERAL FRANCIS XAVIER TAYLOR
Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize an
extraordinary public servant and a dedicated leader of the U.S.
intelligence community, Brig. Gen. Francis Xavier Taylor, the Under
Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis, I&A, at the Department of
Homeland Security.
I had the pleasure of presiding as chairman of the Intelligence
Committee for the confirmation hearing for General Taylor in 2014 and
have witnessed his leadership over the past 2 and a half years as I&A
has made perhaps the most impressive progress of any intelligence
agency over this time.
After nearly 40 years of honorable service to our Nation, Under
Secretary Taylor retired on the last day of the Obama administration.
Prior to his work at DHS, Frank Taylor served for 31 years in the
U.S. Air Force and at the U.S. Department of State as an ambassador for
counterterrorism and head of diplomatic security. He also served as
vice president of security at General Electric. For the past 2 years,
he has applied the leadership skills, understanding of security at home
and abroad, and his close personal friendship with Secretary Jeh
Johnson to transform the Office of Intelligence and Analysis.
I&A's mission is to equip the Homeland Security Enterprise with
timely intelligence and information it needs to keep the homeland safe,
secure, and resilient. It provides critical intelligence to the
leadership of the DHS and its components; State, local, tribal, and
territorial governments, and private sector partners. The office itself
was formed after the creation of DHS through the Homeland Security Act
of 2002 and has seen significant change and disruption in its short
lifetime. Due to Under Secretary Taylor's leadership, I&A is much
further along on its vision of becoming a premier element of the IC,
driving information sharing and delivering unique predictive
intelligence and analysis to operators and decisionmakers at all
levels.
During his confirmation hearing, General Taylor was asked why I&A
needed to exist, given the domestic mission of the FBI and the analytic
work of the National Counterterrorism Center. He was asked to justify
the office's existence if it produced one analytic product per employee
per year. Members questioned him on the need for State and local fusion
centers and the support provided to them by the Federal Government. I
focused my questions on why an intelligence agency should have more
than 60 percent of its staffing come from a contractor workforce.
As we begin 2017, those questions are no longer applicable. Under
Secretary Taylor has transformed the organization. He removed internal
I&A stovepipes and realigned the organization to more closely reflect
the intelligence cycle. Where homeland intelligence analysis had too
often relied on repackaging products from other members of the IC, DHS
collection now forms the basis of I&A production. Under Secretary
Taylor also ordered that finished intelligence include DHS and State-
local-tribal Partner data. Within 1 year, the organization achieved
great success on this front, ensuring 80 percent of finished
intelligence in fiscal year 2016 included unique homeland-derived data.
Under his leadership, I&A is fulfilling the unique homeland-focused
role that Congress intended. The contract workforce is below 25 percent
and the office is producing valuable intelligence analysis, tips to law
enforcement, compiling and improving the quality of DHS data for
intelligence purposes, strengthening our watch listing capability, and
lending expertise to decision makers from the President down to the cop
on the beat.
Under Secretary Taylor has worked tirelessly to mature and strengthen
the Department's relationship with the State and local fusion centers
and make information sharing a priority, changing the way the IC
analyzes the domestic threat picture. When I have visited my local
fusion center in San
[[Page S590]]
Francisco, I receive nothing but praise for the support that I&A
provides and the importance of local, State, and Federal information
sharing. The most recent example of this partnership is the Field
Analysis Report, FAR, an intelligence report written by State and local
intelligence analysts in coordination with I&A for the State and local
audience. This is an important development from intelligence handed
down from intelligence agencies inside the Federal beltway that, at
times, misses the mark of what the local customer needs. FARs are among
the most highly rated finished intelligence products coming out of I&A
and are a direct result of General Taylor's vision.
Under Secretary Taylor also took to heart the need to invest in the
workforce and address extremely low employee morale. He has
restructured the workforce, drastically reducing the ratio of
supervisors to workers, streamlining management and developing what he
calls ``seed corn''--young, junior intelligence professionals brought
in to rejuvenate the organization and help develop a truly homeland-
focused workforce. Besides shifting the balance of the staff, Under
Secretary Taylor focused on hiring, growing, and investing in the
workforce and ensuring that inherently governmental work is done by
governmental employees and clear communication between the workforce
and the leadership.
Members of the Intelligence Committee spend most of our time on
international events and the often controversial practices of the CIA,
NSA, and FBI. We have had the luxury in the recent past not to have to
worry on the intelligence coming from and provided to our homeland
security professionals because of the leadership and uncommon skill of
Under Secretary Frank Taylor. We owe him a tremendous debt of
gratitude. I wish to thank Under Secretary Taylor for his decades of
exceptional service to our country and to wish him and his wife,
Connie, the very best in the days and years ahead as he retires for the
fourth time.
Thank you.
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