Gwen Graham: “I am honored to have served 10 years on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, including the opportunity to serve…”

“I am honored to have served 10 years on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, including the opportunity to serve 18 months as its chairman. Today, I will make some comments on the general context of congressional reform in support of reform of the intelligence agencies, including some specific remarks relative to the amendment that is on the floor at this time. While some of us in Congress had recognized the problems within the Intelligence Community over the years--and we have been working on specific reforms--the tragedy of September 11, 2001, revealed systemic weaknesses that require sweeping changes. In the last few weeks, I have spoken about these issues in floor statements. We have now finished work on an excellent piece of legislation that will establish a strong national intelligence director and lay the groundwork for serious reform of our national intelligence community. It is my hope the House of Representatives will soon follow our lead, so that we may proceed to conference and turn this legislation into law. Now it is time to turn to one final, critical component of reform: Us. We in the Congress must be candid and admit that one of the targets of reform must be the current committee structure by which Congress has organized itself to provide oversight to the intelligence community. Our oversight has been proven to be haphazard at best.”