Bob Kerrey: “I rise to endorse the views of my Chairman and Chairman Thurmond. Continued close collaboration between the Intelligence…”

“I rise to endorse the views of my Chairman and Chairman Thurmond. Continued close collaboration between the Intelligence Committee and the Armed Service Committee can only result in the best possible intelligence for the military, together with greater efficiency. Although the two committees disagree on this jurisdictional issue, in fact the cooperative process worked quite well this year on JMIP. The Intelligence Committee studied the individual JMIP programs in the context of all intelligence activities and the Armed Services Committee looked at them in terms of the military's requirements. On the substance, the two committees are, as usual, in broad agreement. We disagree on one program. I think the merits of that argument are on the side of the Intelligence Committee, but I agree that the Armed Services Committee should have the last word on authorizing programs whose normal function is support to tactical operations. We have worked out a good solution for this year on JMIP, Next year's possible reorganization of the Intelligence Community could produce a whole new aggregation of intelligence programs. So I look forward to joining in a working group with the Armed Services Committee to determine how the Senate should authorize and oversee these programs so the needs of the policymaker and the tactical commander are fully addressed in the coming years.”