Sherwood Boehlert: “the bill before us today provides the necessary, and I emphasize necessary, funding for the operations of our Nation's…”

“the bill before us today provides the necessary, and I emphasize necessary, funding for the operations of our Nation's intelligence functions. It also provides continuing support, in keeping with the committee's work over the previous 2 years in building the intelligence community for the 21st century. This bill makes major improvements to the President's budget request by taking some critically needed steps forward, particularly in the areas of building up human intelligence capabilities and analysis and improving technical collection abilities. It puts some needed logic in the area of unmanned aerial vehicle management, and it builds on some existing directions forged last year in such areas as the national reconnaissance program. Mr. Chairman, to do all of this the bill increases the President's budget by only about seven-tenths of a percent, so I want to congratulate the chairman of the committee and the ranking member for the outstanding work and guidance they have provided. The worldwide scene and many of our national interests have changed, Mr. Chairman, since the dissolution of the Soviet empire. However, the world is not necessarily a significantly safer place since the end of the cold war.”