Mike Thompson: “This Congress created the Director of National Intelligence so he and a core staff could manage the activities of the…”

“This Congress created the Director of National Intelligence so he and a core staff could manage the activities of the different intelligence agencies. Congress did not intend to create a new bureaucracy. Nevertheless, the office has expanded in size. Many members of the Intelligence Committee, myself included, as well as other colleagues in the House, are concerned that this growth will complicate, rather than streamline, the activities of the intelligence communities. Some Members have proposed limiting the number of people who can work for the DNI in order to stem this growth. But I believe that such a measure, while satisfying on the surface, would have harmful consequences. It would eliminate a large number of analysts and planners, the experts who actually perform the core intelligence functions, not middle managers and bureaucrats. The harshest impact would fall on DNI elements like the National Counterterrorism Center, which analyzes terrorism information and plans counterterrorism operations. This would happen because there are plans in play to shift personnel to this specific task. If this other amendment were to pass, it would truncate these very important efforts. These are the people who play critical roles in our efforts to combat terrorism, and our operators around the world cannot do their jobs without this critical backstopping.”