[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9881-9882]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   THE STATE OF INTELLIGENCE'S UNION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 4, 2007, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, it is 6 years after 9/11, and reform of the 
intelligence community continues to be a primary concern for all of us. 
At the swearing-in ceremony of Director Mike McConnell, President Bush 
outlined three main categories for improvement: the need to strengthen 
individual agencies, increase information sharing action and improve 
the quality of intelligence produced. I wish to discuss this morning 
what this means.
  The intelligence community has established new hiring and employment 
reforms to strengthen the workforce. Under the direction of the 
Director of National Intelligence (DNI), there is now a comprehensive 
intelligence community plan that focuses on hiring a more diverse 
workforce to address the critical need for variety in languages, 
backgrounds, and skills. He has also appointed a chief of equal 
employment opportunity and diversity, and has agreed to a set of wide-
ranging recommendations that the diversity senior advisory panel made 
in their report: ``Diversity: A National Security Imperative for the 
Intelligence Community.''
  The Director of National Intelligence is also establishing ``joint 
duty'' as a requirement for promotion to senior positions. This is 
imperative in transforming the culture to increase integration and a 
collaborative nature among agencies. It will also reduce ``stovepipe'' 
mentalities which hampered collection efforts pre-9/11. These are 
important reforms, Mr. Speaker, and good initiatives that have been 
undertaken to address the human resources challenges facing the 
intelligence community. I look forward to seeing the outcome of these 
reforms, and hope to see even more innovative programs to strengthen 
our human intelligence capabilities.
  One of the critical lapses identified after September 11, 
particularly by the 9/11 Commission report, was the poor information 
sharing among agencies and departments. Recently there have been some 
improvements in this area. The National CounterTerrorism Center, NCTC, 
recently published a report entitled ``NCTC and Information Sharing: 
Five Years Since 9/11, a Progress Report.'' The NCTC reports that 
today, following many reforms, analysts have access to dozens of 
networks and information systems that they were previously denied. This 
access is across intelligence, law enforcement, military,

[[Page 9882]]

and homeland security communities. This enormous increase of the amount 
of information, while ultimately beneficial, also raised the concern of 
becoming overwhelmed by the flood of this new information. Therefore, 
the NCTC is continuously exploring new technologies to help analysts 
manage these volumes of terrorism-related data.
  The NCTC also reports that they host communitywide video 
teleconferences three times a day to ensure awareness of ongoing 
operations and emerging threats. Participants in these video 
teleconferences can correct misunderstandings, compare notes, and share 
best practice ideas to enhance the capabilities of all involved. Mr. 
Speaker, this is a vital component to the ability to detect and respond 
effectively in real time to emerging terrorism threats.
  They have also created an online counterterrorism library allowing 
nonintelligence community agencies easier access to counterterrorism 
information. This library today hosts over 6,000 users, 6 million 
documents, and has over 60 departments and agencies that contribute 
information to its files.
  Finally, the ODNI has reformed overseas collection efforts among 
agencies, focusing collection efforts on the stated needs and goals of 
the policymakers receiving the intelligence products. In a March 4 
press release from the public affairs of the Office of Director of 
National Intelligence, ``The intelligence community has strengthened 
the quality of intelligence provided to policymakers through 
initiatives like the mission managers concept. Among the most 
experienced in the intelligence community, mission managers have highly 
developed analytical and collection management skills and they focus on 
the topics of highest interest to our policymakers. This strategy 
allows the intelligence community to identify collection gaps and 
address resources to cover those gaps, ensuring analysts have the 
required information to support policy decisionmakers.'' They have also 
streamlined production of National Intelligence Council (NIC) products, 
increasing output and minimizing delays in production time. They have 
included both more effective explanation behind judgments and the 
inclusion of alternative views of analysts, to incorporate a wide range 
of opinions and combat the dangers arising from ``group think.''
  I look forward to monitoring the progress of these important first 
steps. However, it is vital that we maintain our momentum. As Director 
McConnell stated in his swearing-in speech, ``Taking advantage of these 
advances in technology, today's threats move at increasing speeds. The 
time needed to develop a terrorist plot, communicated around the globe, 
and put it into motion has been drastically reduced. The time line is 
no longer a calendar, it is a watch.''

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