[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 19 (Wednesday, January 30, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S766]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO ROBERT CARDILLO

  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, I take this opportunity to honor the work 
and career of Mr. Robert Cardillo. On February 7, 2019, Robert Cardillo 
will conclude nearly 36 years of service with the U.S. intelligence 
community, ending as Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence 
Agency, or NGA.
  In 1983, Robert began his career at the Defense Intelligence Agency, 
or DIA, as an imagery analyst. He served in a multitude of positions 
for DIA and NGA, to include Acting Director of Intelligence for the 
Joint Staff, in which he supported the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of 
Staff, which is the first time a civilian has ever held that position. 
He was then selected by the Director of National Intelligence, the DNI, 
to be the first ever Deputy Director for Intelligence Integration. In 
that capacity, he was responsible for vastly improving intelligence 
integration, the principal mission of the DNI as established under the 
Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act. As a critical 
additional duty, Robert also served as the primary briefer for the 
President's daily brief at the White House.
  From 2014 to 2019, Mr. Cardillo then led NGA as its Director. Under 
his guidance and direction, NGA provided much lauded geospatial 
intelligence support to U.S. and allied combat operations in Southwest 
Asia and around the globe, assisting in the fight against militant 
extremists. NGA also conveyed key indications and warning during crises 
in Northeast Asia, the Middle East, North and Central Africa, Eastern 
Europe, and elsewhere.
  Highlighting the need to get unclassified data to the warfighter and 
our allies, Director Cardillo pushed hard for unclassified geospatial 
intelligence, or GEOINT, to exist in the open. He urged NGA to work in 
tandem with commercial satellite imagery providers and other 
unclassified industry partners. His support of innovation in artificial 
intelligence, automation and augmentation, and his focus on activity-
based intelligence set NGA on a course to improve the speed and quality 
of geospatial and imagery analysis. His attention to the ebola crisis 
in West Africa and other humanitarian assistance and disaster response 
initiatives showed the value of human geography to the world.
  Director Cardillo was equally successful at forging new multinational 
partnerships in Europe and Asia, and his outreach to industry, 
academia, think tanks, and other international partners led to an 
informal but increasingly thriving global GEOINT enterprise.
  Mr. Cardillo was also the first NGA director to emphasize the 
importance of the Arctic and Antarctica and the first to take on the 
security, quality, and pedigree of imagery pixels and data, so that the 
GEOINT enterprise can continue to serve as a safe foundational frame of 
reference for the entire intelligence community.
  Robert led NGA with integrity for more than 4 highly challenging and 
demanding years, to include the selection of a future headquarters site 
in St. Louis, MO. He laid the groundwork for a world-class building 
that will be designed to endure well into the 22nd century and to serve 
as the modern workplace that his workforce so richly deserves.
  Director Cardillo will long be remembered as a relentless visionary 
who restructured the future of his field to embrace public and private 
partnerships, data science, and machine learning. His far-sighted 
vision will continue to drive requirements and ensure that NGA shows 
the way to a safer United States and a more secure world.
  We thank him for his years of service to the intelligence community 
and to this country.

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