Political Quotes

“I note that the Senator from North Dakota gave a very troubling and compelling example of the fact that the FBI is so far behind in translating critical messages and documents. I am troubled by that, also. Where we may differ is, I believe, that the authority given to the national intelligence director by the bill will allow us to address that problem. Now we will have one person in Government who is accountable and responsible and who will be able to--unless the Byrd amendment is agreed to--transfer the people and the funds necessary to tackle that backlog. That can't happen because of a very cumbersome process. I see our legislation and the authority it gives the new NID to be critical in allowing us to address just those kinds of problems. We know there is a shortage of linguists throughout the Federal Government, but we also know there are thousands of linguists. Some of them are in the FBI, some of them are in the CIA, and some are in various other agencies. If we had a national intelligence director who was able to marshal those resources, then we could get rid of those backlogs. I think that would be very helpful.”