Bob Kerrey: “I stand today to join Chairman Shelby in presenting the nomination of Ms. Joan Dempsey to be Deputy Director of Central…”

“I stand today to join Chairman Shelby in presenting the nomination of Ms. Joan Dempsey to be Deputy Director of Central Intelligence for Community Management. The President has chosen well. In my view, there is no one in the country more qualified to be Deputy DCI for Community Management than Joan Dempsey. I recall when Congress created these new confirmable positions there was concern voiced in some quarters that they would be filled by political people rather than by professionals. Ms. Dempsey proves the concern groundless. In fact, she is the consummate intelligence professional. She has managed a major national intelligence budget. She has brought together the strands of different intelligence disciplines to produce finished intelligence to support our military. She has overseen all the national intelligence agencies which are also combat support agencies of the Defense Department. She knows this business. Community management means allocating resources and work among the different agencies in the optimistically-titled 'intelligence community,' and then combining the product of different agencies and disciplines into a piece of intelligence that helps keep the country safe.”