Sherwood Boehlert: “it is important that our colleagues and the American people understand that intelligence, as distasteful as it sometimes…”

“it is important that our colleagues and the American people understand that intelligence, as distasteful as it sometimes may seem, is critical to the very survival of our Nation and our way of life. This conference report focuses on those programs that provide the best possibility of success for our Nation's first line of defense: its intelligence community. Specifically, this report puts a great deal of emphasis on the future. We made some very difficult choices to cut funding for some legacy programs so that we could add funding for critical technologies and research and development necessary to ensure future capabilities. The ability of our laboratories and scientists to develop new techniques and ``leap-ahead'' technologies is critical for our intelligence community to stay ahead of the threats that our country faces. This report is about the wise and prudent funding and oversight of those intelligence collection, analysis and dissemination functions necessary to ensure the security of our Nation, its interests and its citizens around the world, now and into the future. So I urge my colleagues to stand with our chairman and ranking member and support the report.”