On the recordMay 31, 2012
I'm proud that the bill under consideration has an emphasis on supporting counterintelligence resources. Last year, the chairman and I made it a priority to review the community's counterintelligence posture after learning more about the aggressive ways foreign intelligence and security services continue to steal U.S. secrets, including trade secrets, from U.S. companies. One of the most disturbing reports came from the National Counterintelligence Executive which said that Russia and China are both aggressively utilizing cyberspace to steal U.S. economic secrets. This informative unclassified report is available on the Director of National Intelligence Web site. I encourage every U.S. business to read it to understand the threat they face today. The hard work and money it takes to innovate and conduct research are all at risk. What China, Russia, and any other country who engage in espionage realize is that it's faster and cheaper to steal U.S. creativity than to develop it themselves. The report also gives examples of the millions of dollars that are at stake, like a single proprietary paint formula from Valspar valued at $20 million. These are some economic impacts of espionage, but they are also the cost to our national security and those of our allies. A spy within our intelligence community, with access to our most sensitive secrets, can mean the lives of our sources and our troops.…
