Susan Collins: “Typically you require the approval of the agency that is surrendering the funds. Then you require the approval of the…”

“Typically you require the approval of the agency that is surrendering the funds. Then you require the approval of the department head who oversees the agency. Usually that is the Secretary of Defense. Then you require the approval of OMB. Then you require the approval of six congressional committees. Typically that takes 5 months. I want to repeat that. That reprogramming takes 5 months, on average. John McLaughlin goes on to say: So you can see that is not very agile to meet the needs of today. My view is that the national intelligence director ought to have the authority to move those funds. We are facing an agile enemy, and what are we putting up against him? A system where it takes 5 months to move funds from one category to another.”