Porter Goss: “I come to the floor with a great sense of pride and admiration to recognize the National Reconnaissance Office, the NRO…”

“I come to the floor with a great sense of pride and admiration to recognize the National Reconnaissance Office, the NRO, for 40 years of outstanding service to our Nation. Since its beginning as a small covert organization on 31 of August 1960 during the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the NRO has developed an unprecedented capability to conduct signals and photographic reconnaissance from space, a capability that to this day remains unmatched by any other nation in the world. Part of the success during the last 4 decades is due to the partnership between American industry and the NRO's highly capable workforce. This workforce, which consists of government civilians and military members of the four services, has consistently delivered new and innovative satellite systems that provide critical intelligence information to our national policymakers and to our military and civilian officials during periods of peace or in crisis or in war. Its record of outstanding technological achievement has rightly earned the NRO the title of Freedom's Sentinel in Space.”