Haley Stevens: “I believe this is another amendment that is sort of misunderstood. The powers of the national intelligence director…”

“I believe this is another amendment that is sort of misunderstood. The powers of the national intelligence director under this bill are much broader than the CIA Director's. Under this bill he has the right to move money from any part of the intelligence community to another part without consent of the agency to whom we appropriated money and, really, without regard to the program activities or even the specifications Congress has put on that money. Take, for instance, reserve funds. Reserve funds are there in the event of emergencies for the specific agency involved. He can go in to take the reserve funds from one agency and move them entirely to another agency without any consent of the agency or the consent of the committees that appropriated the money for that reserve contingency. The Senator's amendment makes a lot of sense. Those of us who are cosponsors are very serious about our support.”