Political Quotes

“I appreciate the efforts to enhance protection for whistleblowers in the intelligence community, a goal that I wholeheartedly endorse. It is important that personnel within the intelligence community have appropriate opportunities to bring matters to Congress so long as the mechanisms to do so safeguard highly sensitive classified information and programs. The bill before us raises significant issues in doing so that need more considered review. As chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence during the last Congress, I learned firsthand from whistleblowers about intelligence programs that the administration had not reported to the Intelligence Committees, despite its statutory duty to keep us fully and currently informed. I communicated my strong concerns directly to the President. I would vigorously defend the individuals who provided me with this important information from even the slightest reprisal. So I strongly support the underlying intention of the provisions of the bill intended to protect the intelligence community. Unfortunately, however, that part of the bill was not coordinated with HPSCI, and it suffers from a number of problems that I believe need to be fixed.”