Porter Goss: “in the past, usually during consideration of the Intelligence budget, I have risen before this body and mentioned the…”

“in the past, usually during consideration of the Intelligence budget, I have risen before this body and mentioned the superb and thoroughly knowledgeable staff that resides in the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, of which we are very proud. These individuals are specially selected because of their knowledge and their understanding of the intelligence world, a world that is actually very arcane and confusing to people who do not spend time in it. We do not talk a lot about these folks and they do not seek recognition. They are not that kind. They understand that much of the work must be done in secret so as not to betray the sensitive information they handle, but let me assure my colleagues and the American people that this group of dedicated people works very hard, and they dig very deeply into the operations of the Intelligence Community in order to ensure that there is oversight of intelligence activity and that our Nation is secure and the Intelligence Community is playing by the rules. I want to specifically recognize one of these dedicated people who has served the committee and our country diligently for almost 2 decades. Her name is Diane Roark, and I am sorry to say that when this body reconvenes in April Diane will no longer be on our staff. She is retiring from the House and from government service.”