Porter Goss: “I want to respond just to my good friend the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks) by giving you a statement that we…”

“I want to respond just to my good friend the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks) by giving you a statement that we just received from the Director of Central Intelligence. I just saw it. I read it a minute ago. "The damage done by inattention to the clandestine service during the first half of the 1990s cannot be repaired in the blink of an eye. It was severe." Now, the problem is you want it both ways. You said it was protected. Actually, the administration did a pretty good job of trying to protect the administration. It was the democratically controlled Congress that cut the budget as we have pointed out earlier in this debate. But I will hold this up because this is why the problem exists. The promise was broken. I quote, "Now that that struggle, the Cold War, is over, why is it that our vast intelligence apparatus continues to grow?" Now, that kind of statement just before no votes on supporting the intelligence community happens to have been made by such distinguished Members of the Congress as Senator John Kerry. That was in May of 1997 from the Record. The Democratic party did not support the intelligence community.”