Congressional Record: July 24, 2002 (House)
Page H5413-H5441
INTELLIGENCE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2003
Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call
up House Resolution 497 and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:
H. Res. 497
Resolved, That at any time after the adoption of this
resolution the Speaker may, pursuant to clause 2(b) of rule
XVIII, declare the House resolved into the Committee of the
Whole House on the state of the Union for consideration of
the bill (H.R. 4628) to authorize appropriations for fiscal
year 2003 for intelligence and intelligence-related
activities of the United States Government, the Community
Management Account, and the Central Intelligence Agency
Retirement and Disability System, and for other purposes. The
first reading of the bill shall be dispensed with. All points
of order against consideration of the bill are waived.
General debate shall be confined to the bill and shall not
exceed one hour equally divided and controlled by the
chairman and ranking minority member of the Permanent Select
Committee on Intelligence. After general debate the bill
shall be considered for amendment under the five-minute rule.
It shall be in order to consider as an original bill for the
purpose of amendment under the five-minute rule the amendment
in the nature of a substitute recommended by the Permanent
Select Committee on Intelligence now printed in the bill. The
committee amendment in the nature of a substitute shall be
considered as read. All points of order against the committee
amendment in the nature of a substitute are waived. No
amendment to the committee amendment in the nature of a
substitute shall be in order except those printed in the
portion of the Congressional Record designated for that
purpose in clause 8 of rule XVIII and except pro forma
amendments for the purpose of debate. Each amendment so
printed may be offered only by the Member who caused it to be
printed or his designee and shall be considered as read. At
the conclusion of consideration of the bill for amendment the
Committee shall rise and report the bill to the House with
such amendments as may have been adopted. Any Member may
demand a separate vote in the House on any amendment adopted
in the Committee of the Whole to the bill or to the committee
amendment in the nature of a substitute. The previous
question shall be considered as ordered on the bill and
amendments thereto to final passage without intervening
motion except one motion to recommit with or without
instructions.
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The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Isakson). The gentleman from Florida is
recognized for 1 hour.
Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, for purposes of the debate only, I yield the
customary 30 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Florida (Mr.
Hastings), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume.
During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the
purposes of debate only.
Mr. Speaker, this is the standard rule that we have used for many
years on the intelligence authorization. As far as I know, it is not
controversial in any way. As in past years, we have thought it best to
allow Members good opportunity to review the bill and debate the issues
they feel are important to our Nation's security. Of course, that is
particularly appropriate now. Therefore, as has been the tradition, the
rule is a modified open rule, providing for 1 hour of general debate,
equally divided between the chairman and ranking member of the
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
The rule further provides for the consideration of only pro forma
amendments for the purpose of debate and those amendments printed in
the Congressional Record prior to their consideration, as we heard in
the Clerk's reading. This has allowed for vetting of amendments
regarding classified matters in years past and has proved to be good
practice.
Finally, this rule provides for a motion to recommit with or without
instruction. So I think it is a very clear, fair rule that suits the
purpose well.
Mr. Speaker, just one year ago we met to consider this bill in the
wake of the tragic terrorist attacks and rallied support for our
intelligence community and national security initiatives. Our country
has come a long way since then, but there is still a lot more that
needs to be done. This year's intelligence authorization bill contains
the most significant investment by the administration for the
intelligence community in more than 8 years. This is an important bill.
These funds allow the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to
continue the work that we have been promoting to address many of the
longstanding shortfalls that have besieged our intelligence community
throughout the 1990s.
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In the upcoming general debate, we will discuss in more detail some
of the specific provisions of H.R. 4628. However, I would like to
briefly highlight a few of the critical areas upon which the Permanent
Select Committee on Intelligence has focused in this year's bill.
We have further enhanced efforts to rebuild our Nation's human
intelligence capabilities, human, spies; and shortfalls in the
intelligence community's analytic core, more analysis; as well as
addressing longstanding recapitalization needs for technical
intelligence, heavy investment in important equipment. Of specific note
are actions we are taking to address critical needs in the area of
linguistic capabilities, people who speak the languages we need to
understand. Addressing these critical areas is crucial to meeting our
immediate counterterrorism challenges and to correcting our longer-
range problems facing the intelligence community and the basic
structure of the U.S. intelligence establishment.
The Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence continues bold
initiatives on these points, knowing that true intelligence community
reform will be necessary if our intelligence establishment is to
successfully meet all of the national security challenges this Nation
faces in today's puzzling and dangerous world. Through our regular
oversight work and in our joint inquiry efforts with our Senate
counterparts, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is and
will be further addressing the pressing need for appropriate
intelligence community reform.
Meanwhile, this bill provides the President with the intelligence
tools to win the war on terrorism and to remedy many other longstanding
problems of the intelligence community, which we have pointed out
several years in this process.
In sum, this is a good, noncontroversial, bipartisan bill with very
few, if any, contentious amendments to consider. The rule that has been
crafted for its consideration is fair and will provide ample
opportunity for debate. I urge support for the rule and the underlying
bill.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume. First let me thank my good friend from Sanibel for
yielding me the customary time. It is a pleasure to serve with the
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Goss) on the Committee on Rules, and I look
forward to rejoining him on the Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence in the near future.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this rule providing for the
consideration of H.R. 4628, the Intelligence Authorization Act for
Fiscal Year 2003. The rule is a modified open rule, as Mr. Goss has
said, requiring that amendments be preprinted in the Congressional
Record. As we all know, the preprinting requirement for the
intelligence authorization bill has been the accepted practice of this
Chamber for several years because of the sensitive nature of much of
the bill and the need to protect classified information.
The underlying bill, H.R. 4628, is noncontroversial and it was
reported from the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence by a
unanimous vote. Members who wish to do so can go to the Permanent
Select Committee on Intelligence office to examine the classified
schedule of authorizations for the programs and activities of the
intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the National
Intelligence Program.
This includes authorizations for the CIA, as well as the foreign
intelligence and counterintelligence programs within, among others, the
Department of Defense, the National Security Agency, the Departments of
State, Treasury and Energy and the FBI.
I might add, for Members who have not done so at any point, as a
Member having served most recently on the Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence and hoping to rejoin it again in the future, I would urge
them to take advantage of the opportunity to review the programs and
activities of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Also included in the classified documents are the authorizations for
the tactical intelligence and related activities and joint military
intelligence program of the Department of Defense.
Today, more than ever, we must make the creation of a strong and
flexible intelligence apparatus one of the highest priorities of this
body. The terrorist attacks of September 11, combined with the
continuing threat of further attacks, underscores the importance of
this legislation, and I am pleased that it has been brought to the
floor before the August recess.
Now, Mr. Speaker, while this bill is noncontroversial, it is not
closed to improvement. Today is not the first time that I have noted on
the floor that experts in the intelligence community continue to argue
that our intelligence operations must not only be a strong and flexible
intelligence apparatus, but also a diverse one. For the past 15 years,
Members of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the
directors of our country's largest intelligence agencies have labored
to create a more diverse intelligence community. Although their efforts
have borne some fruit, much more needs to be done.
Later this evening I will be offering two amendments to H.R. 4628,
both of which are aimed at increasing diversity in our Nation's
intelligence agencies. The first of the two amendments expresses the
sense of Congress that the CIA, DIA, NSA and NIMA make minority
recruitment a priority in their hiring decisions. Of the 13 agencies
that currently make up the U.S. intelligence community, only the DIA
boasts a minority population that even comes close to the average
percentage of minorities in the Federal workforce.
The second amendment instructs the Director of Central Intelligence
to issue an annual report to Congress on the hiring and retention of
minorities by the intelligence community. Such a report will allow this
body to monitor the progress of the intelligence community's efforts to
recruit and retain minorities.
I do hope that my colleagues will support both of the amendments, and
I believe they will be supported, having spoken with the chairman in
this regard.
Further, I would also like to urge my colleagues to support the
amendment which will be offered by my good friend, the gentleman from
Indiana (Mr. Roemer), and he is my good friend.
The Roemer amendment establishes an independent commission to examine
the events leading up to and ensuing the September 11 attacks. Though
later this week the House may pass a bill creating a new Department of
Homeland Security, the bill will in no way identify nor fix the
problems that currently exist in the United States intelligence
community. The Roemer amendment, in examining the intelligence failures
of September 11, will provide a comprehensive examination and critique
on this issue, and I urge my colleagues to support it.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4628 provides authorizations and appropriations for
some of the most important national security programs in this country.
Any hesitation by this body in passing it would be a disservice to the
American people.
I urge my colleagues to support this rule, and I ask that they
support my amendments, the Roemer amendment and the underlying bill.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, I am privileged to yield 5 minutes to the
gentleman from New York (Mr. Boehlert), the chairman of the Committee
on Science and a member of the Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence.
(Mr. BOEHLERT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. BOEHLERT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me
time, and I rise in support of a very fair rule.
Mr. Speaker, this bill is complex in its specific recommendations,
but simple in its intent: To restore our Nation's intelligence
capabilities so that we can absolutely minimize the possibility of
another surprise terrorist attack on our homeland. Our goal; no more
surprises, no more attacks.
The President is absolutely correct; homeland security is and must
continue to be the number one priority of government at all levels, and
the first priority of the Federal Government is to guarantee, as much
as humanly possible, the peace and security of the
[[Page H5415]]
American people. They, we, all of us, have a right to live our lives
without fear.
The largest increase in spending for our national intelligence
activities in over a decade is provided for in this bill.
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For the first time in many years, the administration has requested an
increase in intelligence operations and capabilities. We are providing
the total funding the President requested, placing greater emphasis on
areas which require the most attention.
Specifically, this bill addresses not just with words, but with
deeds, dollars to back up what we say: the shortfall in human
intelligence with essential language capabilities. We must aggressively
pursue a program to significantly increase a number of foreign
language-qualified individuals in the intelligence community. It adds
significant funding for initial and follow-on training for linguists,
and there is a provision to create a new language university for the
entire intelligence community.
I believe this is critical to developing the human intelligence
officers of the future that will be able to collect and, more
importantly, analyze information on those who would pose a threat to
the United States of America. It does not serve our national interests
if we are the best at collecting intelligence if we are lacking in our
ability to analyze and disseminate to decision-makers sensitive
information in a timely manner. That possibility exists today because
of our deficiencies in language capabilities.
This bill takes on, in a very direct way, the issues of intelligence,
collection, analysis, and production against threats of terrorism. We
do so by placing added emphasis and resources where I think they are
most needed: on human intelligence, our eyes and ears with a global
reach.
Let me state the obvious. It does not do much good if we have the
right people in the right places dealing with collecting or analyzing
if they do not have the language ability to understand what is being
collected or what is being analyzed.
Mr. Speaker, as I said, the intent of this bill is simple. It is
designed to provide the necessary resources, direction, and
authorizations for the Nation's intelligence community to provide the
best foreign intelligence possible to defend the United States against
the many worldwide threats. The threats are not going to go away; and
from my days as a boy scout, I know we must be prepared.
Mr. Speaker, I will close with a thank you. Thank you to the
dedicated men and women of the U.S. intelligence community. We owe them
a debt of gratitude for the tough and unheralded work they do for all
of us. The memory of a failure of intelligence to present something as
horrific as September 11 will forever be seared in our minds. It is
important to never forget the untold numbers of threats that never
materialized into anything but words, with no action following, because
of the endless number of intelligence success stories where the system
worked as intended.
The system is not perfect; it probably never will be. But we must
continue to strive for perfection. This bill is a contribution toward
that end. Thank you, all of you, in the intelligence community for
quietly being there, working behind the scenes, to discover and counter
the threats to our security and our liberties.
I also want to thank the committee chairman, the gentleman from
Florida (Mr. Goss), and the ranking member, the gentlewoman from
California (Ms. Pelosi), for their leadership and hard work on this
bill. And I want to express my respect and admiration for my colleagues
on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and their very able
professional staff. They work hard, very hard for the cause.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 4628.
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 5 minutes
to the distinguished gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Bishop), my good
friend, and he is my friend.
Mr. BISHOP. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding me this
time and recognizing me.
I want to talk about the need in this bill and in our intelligence
community for diversity. Intelligence and the intelligence community
has a mission for providing the best real-time information for our
policymakers and our warfighters. It is about information. It is about
having a heads-up; and if 9-11 has taught us anything, it certainly has
taught us that we need to have a heads-up.
All of the professionals, as has been stated already, have indicated
to us that if we are to be the best that we can be in our intelligence
community, we must have the best human assets for collecting
information and the best technical assets for collecting information;
and we must be able to process, analyze, and disseminate that
information where it needs to go.
But the problem that we face, the challenge we face, is that as hard
as the men and women in our intelligence community are working to
gather the necessary information so that when our servicemen and women
go into harm's way they know what they will be facing, we still do not
have adequate human assets and the kind of technical analysis assets
that will allow us to have the information that we need real-time.
Why should we not have diversity in the intelligence community? Every
intelligence professional, the heads of the CIA, NSA, DIA, NIMA, Army
intelligence, naval intelligence, all have indicated that we will be
much more effective in our collection by our human assets, if our
targets are hard to distinguish from our collectors. So if we need to
have information about Islamic culture, our intelligence collectors
need to be knowledgeable of that. Yes, if we are going into Rwanda and
we need information of what is happening there, maybe some Rwandan-
Americans ought to be a part of our collection force, Somalians or
Pakistanis or Afghans or Africans or Latinos; Asian Americans, Arab
Americans, Indian Americans, Mexican Americans, Cuban Americans,
Turkish Americans, Nigerian Americans, Muslim Americans, Christian
Americans, Jewish Americans, Irish Americans, human assets. We must
have racial diversity, cultural diversity, and language diversity if we
are to be effective in our efforts.
When we put the men and women who fight and defend this country and
who go all over the world protecting American interests, when we put
them in harm's way, they need to know what they will be faced with, and
the policymakers who send them there need to have that real-time
information; and they need to have the best quality information. They
need to be able to penetrate the sources of the information so that we
can, indeed, have a heads-up.
The creation of a more diverse intelligence workforce must be a
priority, the intelligence agencies, the undergraduate training
programs that use these programs to increase their minority efforts. I
was proud this morning to be able to go out to one of the agencies and
participate in the graduation ceremony of one of the programs designed
to help create that diversity. But this is a start. We have a long way
to go. We have challenges that we face, and unless we accelerate our
efforts to create and maintain the kind of diversity in our
intelligence community, we will not achieve the success that we desire.
Racial diversity, cultural diversity, language diversity are
necessities. They not only are the right thing to do, but they make
good business sense for gathering and disseminating and analyzing and
understanding the information that we must have.
Mr. Speaker, this is a good rule; this is a good bill. With the
amendments, it will be a better bill; and I urge my colleagues to
support it so that we can have the best intelligence-gathering
apparatus that our country can possibly have.
Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to yield 5 minutes to the
distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham), a very valued
member of our committee.
Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to serve on the Committee
on Intelligence with Members on both sides of the House. I also sit on
the Subcommittee on Defense of the Committee on Appropriations, two
committees I think that work together in this House, together for
national security and the best interests of the American
[[Page H5416]]
people. That is why most of us came here, and we wish that all
committees that we served on have that decorum to work in a single
direction. It makes my heart soar like an eagle to serve on those kinds
of committees and do the people's work.
I think when we look at what the committee does, and the gentleman
from Florida (Mr. Goss), the chairman of our committee, and I have seen
chairmen and leaders that micromanage; he does not. He kind of gives
you the reins and he says, go out there and do your thing and do it for
the betterment of both sides of the aisle and the American people. He
does not micromanage; he gives us that free rein and for that I thank
the chairman.
The committee staff, I want to tell my colleagues that each Member
has a right to go to the committee staff and get these briefings. I
would recommend that my colleagues do it; and these staff members, some
are the James Bonds of the world. Some work in technology; some work in
administration. But if my colleagues want a brief on any area, ask, and
they will be delighted to give it. That is the kind of committee that
we serve on.
A good example is that if you are going to best determine what the
needs of the future, whether it is in defense or whether it is our
intelligence agencies, you need to be able to know for a fact what the
current threat is.
I see the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks) and he looks to the
B-2, because he knows what the future threat is, the F-22.
So if we know what the threat is today through our intelligence
agencies, then we know better what to plan. For example, why do we need
a B-2 and its effectiveness with stealth? Why do we need the F-22? In
my opinion, we ought to double the buy, because it is the only airplane
in the system that can meet the threat of the SU-30 and the SU-37 and
plus whatever they have now. If we shorten that buy in defense, as some
are talking about in the White House, I think it is foolhardy.
But the basis that we get in this committee in a bipartisan way to go
forward with national security needs is laudatory.
I would tell my colleagues that when people start going after
defense, or they go after our intelligence services, most of us on the
committee get very defensive. Because as a body, this body and the
other body, in many cases we have not given our military or
intelligence agencies the assets they need to do the job.
In the last administration, we went on 149 deployments. That spread
our military thin. We only had 22 percent re-enlistment, and people
were stretched, and 25-year-old airplanes were stretched. The reason I
bring it up is because every time we deployed, our intelligence
agencies had to deploy also, and many of the systems that they had on
the drawing board to give us SIGINT and ELINT and HUMINT information
had to be scuttled because it went to pay for the war.
This committee, in a bipartisan way, is attempting to rectify some of
those things. We cannot make that up over the next 5 years. But the
committee is doing the best they can, based on the testimony from our
services. That is why it is such a neat deal to work on this committee.
We are doing something very, very positive and something good for this
country.
Is the war on drugs dead? No. But we have problems there as well as
with al Qaeda.
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, I am happy to yield 2 minutes to the
distinguished gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kirk).
Mr. KIRK. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this rule and this bill.
No one is more qualified to guide our intelligence legislation than the
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Goss). Our intelligence community grew from
World War I and the Cold War to be supremely able to monitor foreign
militaries and governments.
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No more Pearl Harbors and powerful support to the war fighter. I
served for 13 years as a reserve Naval intelligence officer and
received vital intelligence that saved American lives in Haiti, Bosnia,
Kosovo and Iraq.
Our intelligence community must now be upgraded to meet the terrorist
threat. Our system is supremely designed to monitor foreign militaries,
but has left ability to monitor clandestined terror organizations
backed by familiar relations. We must upgrade our linguistic defenses.
We have Russian linguists but now need to speak Pastoon, Dari, Urdu and
dozens of other languages where terrorists are recruited from. Our
defense language institute in Monterey will play a key part of that
role.
Analysts now receive huge numbers of messages but they need back up
to rapidly translate and analyze information to develop actionable
intelligence in time. We are all aware of the failures of September 11.
We should know more about the successes of the intelligence community
in defeating the millennium bombers and Hezbollah in Bosnia or dozens
of other victories won, but not reported on the front page of The
Washington Post.
I want to thank the professionals from DIA, CIA, NSA, NIMA and the
military services who are on watch tonight protecting America. This
bill provides critical resources and, more importantly, new flexibility
to meet the new challenge. We face terrorists, wealthy terrorists who
may one day have weapons of mass destruction. Without the intelligence
community, we would some day face a nuclear Pearl Harbor. With the
community we will extend security and freedom for our people and
allies. I urge adoption of the rule and the bill.
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
Mr. Speaker, at this time in the interest of all the Members tonight,
in spite of the fact that I feel I could talk about this matter for a
substantial period of time, I would just urge the Members at this time
to vote for this good rule and for the underlying bill which serves a
great purpose for our Nation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
General Leave
Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks
and include extraneous material on H. Res. 497.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Florida?
There was no objection.
Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I would echo my colleague and friend's sentiment. This a
fair and good rule. It deserves everybody's support.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the
previous question on the resolution.
The previous question was ordered.
The resolution was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Tauzin). Pursuant to House Resolution
497 and rule XVIII, the Chair declares the House in the Committee of
the Whole House on the State of the Union for the consideration of the
bill, H.R. 4628.
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In the Committee of the Whole
Accordingly, the House resolved itself into the Committee of the
Whole House on the State of the Union for the consideration of the bill
(H.R. 4628) to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2003 for
intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the United States
Government, the Community Management Account, and the Central
Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability System, and for other
purposes, with Mr. Isakson in the chair.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to the rule, the bill is considered as having
been read the first time.
Under the rule, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Goss) and the
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Bishop) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Goss).
Mr. GOSS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Chairman, I rise this evening in very strong support of this
bill, which is the annual authorization for intelligence and
intelligence-related activities, as required by law. This is a unique
authorization bill in that sense.
[[Page H5417]]
This is a very good bill that was crafted on a bipartisan basis. In
fact, I think it more appropriate, I should say, nonpartisan basis. And
it passed unanimously from our committee.
This would not have been possible without the attention and
involvement of all of our stellar members, and I truly mean that, but
especially the tireless efforts of our ranking member, the gentlewoman
from California (Ms. Pelosi), who, I am sorry to say, is on other
duties before the Committee on Rules now which is never a great place
to be if you can be on the intelligence community.
I cannot say enough about her support and guidance in this process,
all in the spirit of ensuring that our intelligence community is
positioned in the best possible way to protect our Nation. I want to
thank the gentlewoman for the number of hours that she has contributed
to the committee's all-important work and for the good nonpartisan work
you do and for the leadership she provides for her side.
Mr. Chairman, this bill turns a corner on rebuilding our intelligence
capabilities. The administration has requested a significant amount of
investment into these capabilities which is frankly long overdue. More
importantly, the bill lays the groundwork for sustained investment in
programs that will take a while to rebuild, but they are crucial,
absolutely crucial to our success against today's and tomorrow's
threats, which we have begun to better recognize and this bill begins
to address some of the issues that have heretofore been placed on a
back burner, despite the fact that some of us have been urging they be
moved to a more forward place.
In some ways, I see this bill as emphasizing the needs to get back to
the basics of intelligence. Often of the last decade especially, many
have gotten overly enamored with technology and finding ways to collect
data with the least amount of risks, the intelligence version of the
no-casualties policy.
Although, I will be the first to emphasize the need to keep on top of
various technologies and the importance of them to our intelligence
capabilities, our real security relies on some of the most fundamental
aspects of intelligence. Unfortunately, Mr. Chairman, despite our
concerns and warnings, we learned in a very tragic way how important
these fundamentals really are, notwithstanding the extraordinarily good
work a great many men and women representing our country are providing
for us around the world in the intelligence community.
The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 were well conceived; they
were coordinated; they took advantage of liberties that we have come to
rely on in our quality of life in this country. That also confirmed our
fears that the world is, indeed, a very dangerous and very unstable
place. And for the committee it unfortunately proved our worst fears
that the Nation's intelligence community was not sufficiently robust or
positioned to provide the first line of defense we need and do count
on.
Mr. Chairman, the price was much too high, and we owe it to those who
lost their lives, some of whom were members of the intelligence
community, I might add, to make sure we rebuild our capabilities and
our people to the best of our ability is the mission of this bill.
Other members of committee will highlight certain provisions of the
bill, so I am not going through them. I will make the point, however,
that certain lessons are involved in the getting back to the basics
part of this. They include: That the way to gain the most vital
information, plans and intentions of the enemy, what they are actually
thinking of doing, is more often than not to be physically close to the
target, that is the right way to do it, whether that is through the
human agent assets or assets of other types, like technical assets or
such things an unmanned aerial vehicles or manned aircraft, even.
This involves taking risks, both in terms of who you may have to work
with and in terms of, frankly, potential loss of life and tragically we
have seen casualties in the intelligence community in the war on
terrorism this year.
Once you collect that data, you have the mechanisms and capabilities
to analyze, understand and use the data, get it to the right people in
a timely way, and that involves having the right people with the right
training and the right skills and armed with the right tools to make
sure those who get that information can get it, and the right
management and guidance are available to you through the intelligence
community, and that community is structured in such a way to allow the
management to be effective.
Those are all things that we need to work on.
Mr. Chairman, this bill addresses many of these basics, save the
structure question. And I want to emphasize that this is a task that is
yet to be completed, but is every bit as important as the investment in
the basics. This is an area that the committee hopes to address soon as
has actually been somewhat sidetracked because of the 9-11 review, but
it remains a major priority on the House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence to deal with the intelligence architecture.
Before I close, let me recognize two groups of people. First are the
men and women of the intelligence community whom I referred to
previously who are working tirelessly around the globe, and they are
doing everything they can to protect us. They work 7-24, and they
working in dangerous conditions and not very nice conditions and they
do things that a lot of us would not be very happy to do, and they take
up that work. They are the front lines of America. They are remarkable
people. I think anyone on the committee would tell you, we owe them a
great deal of gratitude and thanks. And I am sorry we cannot actually
reveal some of the exploits and success of these people because it
would make Americans proud, as it makes us on the committee proud when
we get to know these things.
The second group of people is close to home, Mr. Chairman. We would
not be here tonight if it were not for our committee members and our
committee staff. I have spoken my in the committee and my membership,
my vice chairman, the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Bereuter) who does a
great job taking care of me and pinch-hitting for me, and all the other
members of committee. We have now broken down into subcommittee so we
have more subcommittee chairman and ranking members and everybody has
risen to the occasion and the extra tasks that our committees this year
has been asked to take.
We have expanded by something like 25 percent in terms of our
membership and staff. We have been given many extra responsibilities
because of 9-11 and everybody has risen to the task. I must say the
committee staff has impressed me every day. When I arrive at the
committee, I admire their work ethic and their understanding of the
very complex and arcane activities of the Intelligence Community. I
think they represent the committee and Congress very well. Special
thanks to staff director Tim Sample, Mike Sheehy, the senior minority
staffer who worked to make sure the functions of the committee occur in
the least partisan atmosphere possible. And I am extremely proud of
that accomplishment on their park. Thank to Chris Barton, our chief
counsel, and Chris Healey, a minority counsel, as well as Michele Lang,
our deputy chief counsel, and Mike Meermans, our budget coordinator for
their tireless work on preparing this bill.
Obviously, each and every person on this staff beyond those I named
deserve our thanks and praise for jobs well done.
In the atmosphere I want to particularly thank our security staff who
have been given some extraordinary problems to cope with and I think
have done an amazingly good job. Mr. Chairman, I ask my colleagues to
support this bill.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BISHOP. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of H.R. 4628. The committee has
worked hard to provide the resources that our military forces and the
intelligence community require in order to prevail in the war on
terrorism and to safeguard all of our other national security
interests.
This is a bipartisan bill for which the gentleman from Florida (Mr.
Goss), the ranking Democrat, the gentlewoman from California (Ms.
Pelosi), my counterpart on the technical and
[[Page H5418]]
tactical subcommittee, the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle) and all
of the other committee members deserve great credit.
I want to thank the committee staff for the tireless hours and the
hard work that they have put into the preparation of this bill. It is a
good bill. And I urge all of my colleagues to support it.
I want to emphasize a few points to my colleagues in the House as
well as the administration about what the bill accomplishes, as well as
some of my concerns for the future.
As is well known from press accounts, unmanned aerial vehicles
performed superbly in Afghanistan. With some exceptions in the past,
reconnaissance systems flew over or passed the battlefields in a matter
of seconds or minutes, and therefore provided only a sort of snapshot
of what was going on. Given the time delays in getting that information
to our tactical forces, it was extremely difficult to attack mobile
targets. What these UAVs provide is persistence, a constant presence.
Once targets are detected, UAV's can loiter and track them until an
attack can be mounted as demonstrated repeatedly in Afghanistan.
Now the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs are
advocating adding persistent surveillance capability from space. For
example, by launching many small radar satellites that can detect and
track moving vehicles. I believe this is the direction next generations
collection systems must take. DOD is also right to plan on buying many
UAV's and equipping them with capable sensor, but so far DOD has failed
to plan to buy the communication and ground processing capacity
necessary to support these platforms.
{time} 2300
This makes no sense and clearly it must be corrected.
The war also showed that no single sensor system alone is able to
perform all of the functions necessary to attack mobile targets, wide
area surveillance, target detection, identification, tracking and
precise target location. The only solution is to work the separate
sensor systems together in a network. Building this network of sensors
is feasible and it is very affordable, but although DOD appears to
understand its importance, progress has been slow.
I was disappointed that the administration, despite the large budget
increases, failed to request sufficient funds to support the contract
award for NIMA's modernization program. The committee corrected this
problem by redirecting other funds to that area. The committee also
added funds to begin acquiring the capability to receive and process
airborne imagery.
I am encouraged with regard to commercial imagery by the NIMA
director's progress in developing a rational strategy for the first
time. However, NIMA to date has received funding adequate to support
only one satellite collection company but no policy guidance to rely on
a single source. If NIMA is to support multiple companies and meet
DOD's readiness requirements for geospatial products, NIMA must receive
more funding. It is as simple as that. That key issue must be resolved,
and it must be resolved soon.
Finally, a word about the National Security Agency. Unfortunately,
NSA's serious acquisition management problems persist, preventing the
agency from keeping pace with the global telecommunications industry.
These problems contributed to limiting NSA's operational capabilities
in key areas relevant to the war on terrorism and other so-called
transnational threats as noted in the report of the Subcommittee on
Terrorism and Homeland Security on the events of September 11. NSA's
problems could have very serious consequences and, in my opinion,
demand more attention from the Secretary of Defense.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GOSS. Mr. Chairman, I am privileged to yield 3 minutes to the
gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Bereuter), the distinguished vice-chairman
of the committee, who also takes care of all of the policy coordination
on our committee, which always dazzles me.
(Mr. BEREUTER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Chairman, this Intelligence Authorization Act
addresses a number of pressing intelligence needs. For example, the
legislation takes steps to strengthen the intelligence community's
absolutely critical analytical core.
In recent years, the U.S. has been forced to focus on terrorists,
proliferators and drug traffickers. These are far more difficult
targets to track, and frankly, the intelligence community took too long
to adapt to these new threats. It did not reach out aggressively to
recruit the human intelligence sources that could have provided us with
invaluable information. We lost far too many skilled analysts whose job
was to provide early warning.
This legislation provides much-needed funding to help rebuild a
dynamic, wide-ranging, global analytical capability. It is an effort
for which this committee has been serving a leading role for some years
now.
A second important component of the Intelligence Authorization Act
relates to terrorist finances. One of the major intelligence
initiatives in the wake of 9/11 has been a serious effort to attack the
financial assets of terrorist organizations and their supporters.
Terrorist networks such as al Qaeda obviously cannot function without
significant financial backing.
Al Qaeda, for example, is supported by, one, a shadowy network of
fundraisers, money lenders and shakedown artists; two, businesses and
charities serving as front organizations; and three, unscrupulous
facilitators and middlemen. However, with the decision of the executive
branch to fully exploit its existing authorities to target terrorist
finances, and with the granting of additional authorities under the
U.S. PATRIOT Act, we are now aggressively attacking the money flow. To
date, over $100 million in suspected terrorist money has been seized or
frozen by the United States and its allies.
Mr. Chairman, this is an important and powerful set of financial
tools in the war on terrorism.
Mr. Chairman, there are other important initiatives here, but I want
to say that I think one of the important things that we have done is
close an important loophole caused by the Freedom of Information Act.
Our adversaries were able to make requests that had to be dealt with
for very sensitive information, and we have taken a commonsense
approach to ending that loophole.
Mr. Chairman, I would conclude by congratulating the gentleman from
Florida (Mr. Goss), the chairman of the committee and the distinguished
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) for the leadership they have
demonstrated in bringing this genuinely bipartisan product to the
floor. This legislation is a very serious effort and was unanimously
approved by the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Each and every member of the committee and our extraordinary staff
dedicated long hours to the hearings and drafting of the bill. Each
Member, I think, and the staff clearly recognizes the importance of our
actions and our responsibilities to the body, and I think my colleagues
can take, if I may say so, justifiable pride in the efforts of HPSCI
and our staff and particularly the leadership of the gentleman from
Florida (Mr. Goss) and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi).
Mr. Chairman, I urge strong support and the adoption of H.R. 4628.
Mr. BISHOP. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3\1/4\ minutes to the distinguished
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Harman), the ranking member on the
Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security.
(Ms. HARMAN asked and was given permission to revise and extend her
remarks.)
Ms. HARMAN. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding commend
him for his leadership on the Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical
Intelligence, and commend our colleagues for their strong bipartisan
contributions to this committee.
I rise in strong support of the Intelligence Authorization Act and
join others in expressing my pride in the bipartisan way in which this
committee works. For those who question whether this House can tackle
the tough ones, tonight proves it. Our actions over the past three
hours in the Traficant matter were a somber and clear example of
bipartisanship and facing up to our responsibilities. This bill is
another such example.
[[Page H5419]]
Members of this committee have traveled all over the world and have
met U.S. intelligence personnel working in many shabby and often
dangerous conditions. They do this despite their family's
understandable fears that they are in harm's way. This bill is designed
to give good people better tools, to fill gaps in performance. It is
not about gaps in the dedication, commitment and patriotism of
thousands of Americans who work in the intelligence agencies, both here
and abroad.
Many issues addressed in this bill, Mr. Chairman, were identified in
a report that our Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security
released last week. Our full intelligence committee wants no time to
elapse before implementing that report's recommendations, and this bill
recommends action, action that the families of those who died on 9/11
deserve.
Our report said, for example, that inadequate penetration of the al
Qaeda target stemmed in large part from too few resources devoted to
counterterrorism and an overreliance on assistance from allies to
collect information. We fix that in this report; we insist that we
invest more resources in human intelligence (humint), and we spell out
how that should happen.
Penetration of the al Qaeda target, our report says, requires
multiyear investment and cutting edge technologies. This bill directs
that mission-critical technology is available and improved.
Our report said that watch lists were inadequate. This bill calls on
the intelligence community to provide global coverage and common access
to information, which should help fix the watch list problem.
Our report said that we were concerned about the HUMINT career
structure. Too often, individuals get promoted based on their broad and
general knowledge in wide-ranging areas. Those who stay focused in one
area or even one country, where an understanding of local political
conditions is key to our fight against terrorism, are not being given
the credit or rewards deserved. This bill recommends that those rewards
be given.
Regrettably, there is a huge language problem. This bill addresses
that problem.
As in past years, this bill also expresses continuing concern about
the organizational framework in place to produce intelligence
capabilities that can meet future national security demands. This bill
addresses that problem.
{time} 2310
Mr. Chairman, our language is terse, our calls for reform are urgent,
but we also state that "the successes of the intelligence community
normally go unnoticed for obvious and correct reasons . . . The problem
is not with the individuals, but with the tools and the organization
with which they work."
This is a good bill. I urge its support, and I urge support later
this week for a bipartisan homeland security bill.
Mr. GOSS. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 3\1/2\ minutes to the
gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle), the chairman of the Subcommittee
on Technical and Tactical Intelligence, and former Governor of
Delaware.
(Mr. CASTLE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for that introduction
and for yielding me this time.
Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of H.R. 4628, the fiscal year
2003 intelligence authorization bill. Before I move to the substance of
my statement, I would like to recognize and commend the gentleman from
Florida (Mr. Goss), the chairman of the committee, and the ranking
member, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), for the
outstanding leadership they have provided to the Nation and
particularly to the intelligence community during this past year.
This has been a difficult time for our intelligence community. There
have been failings, but there have been many successes that have not
and should not be publicized. The gentleman from Florida and the
gentlewoman from California have been at the forefront of efforts to
ensure our professional intelligence offices get the resources
necessary to do their vital work for our national security. I thank
them both.
Mr. Chairman, those of us on the Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence are among the few who understand that the world has not
changed, despite the tragedy that befell us on September 11. We have
been painfully aware for a long time that while many regions of the
world are working together with us to promote peace and stability,
there are many elements that are committed to undermining such efforts.
We are intimately familiar with the difficult tasks our intelligence
professionals are up against, and, moreover, with the outstanding work
they do day in and day out around the globe. For all they do, I would
like to extend my gratitude to them for all their unheralded successes.
Oddly, their past successes have resulted in the American public
having a combination of a low awareness of the magnitude of the threats
and the high expectation that the intelligence community would always
be able to counter them. The difficulty of such a task is daunting.
What makes this intelligence community all the more special is that
they have done as well as they have, in spite of years of resource
neglect.
This year's funding request begins to restore the capabilities that
have withered over the years. Today, the intelligence community's
challenges remain large, but we will continually assess the
intelligence community's ability to meet their challenges. Because this
year represents a significant point in our history to consider the
priorities and needs for intelligence activities and set a new course
for the future, I am particularly concerned with how much the strategic
vision has been dedicated toward our future collection needs and
systems, and, more importantly, whether the administration is willing
to sustain the investment through the duration necessary to deliver the
new capabilities.
As chairman of the Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical
Intelligence, I understand the critical need to invest in and modernize
our technical intelligence systems. These systems take years to field
and tens of thousands of highly skilled scientists and engineers to
complete. In this bill, I am happy that we address the resource strain
of the legacy programs in hopes that we avoid sacrificing our future.
I am concerned that the U.S. technology industry has not held itself
to a high enough standard of accountability. When the country needs
special capabilities, we cannot be held captive to a single contractor,
regardless of their performance, simply because there are no
alternatives. I believe even the intelligence community must take some
calculated risks in order to ensure we acquire the kinds of
capabilities that future threats demand. The bill before us details how
we intend to ensure the country is on an appropriate and sustainable
technology path for the future.
Although this budget represents a significant increase over the past
years, we need to support it with the full knowledge and understanding
that there is a great deal more work to be done. Rebuilding the
intelligence capabilities of the United States is not going to be done
with a single budget. Congress and the American people need to
understand that these threats against our Nation will not be eliminated
with the demise of al Qaeda. In order to close the gap between demands
on intelligence and the complexity of the current and future threats,
we must commit to a long-term intelligence capability restoration.
The next attack against us may be to undermine our confidence in some
critical part of our infrastructure, or may be chemical or biological
warfare. We do not know. But what we do know is that the threats are
real and we need to act accordingly. Mr. Chairman, this bill is a
downpayment to provide our senior policymakers with the capabilities
and tools for the near term. It is a responsible, reasonable, and
appropriate request to fund our Nation's national security needs.
The President, our policymakers, our military, the people of the
United States, and al Qaeda deserve nothing less; and I ask the Members
of the House to give H.R. 4628 their full support.
Mr. BISHOP. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the
distinguished gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Roemer), who is a very hard-
working member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
[[Page H5420]]
Mr. ROEMER. Mr. Chairman, I thank my good friend from the State of
Georgia for yielding me this time; and I want to note, as some of my
colleagues may have, that this is the first entire budget put together
by the United States Congress since the horrific attacks on our people,
our homeland, and our country on September 11. I could not be more
proud to serve in this Chamber and with the people that have put this
intelligence budget together: our chairman, the gentleman from the
State of Florida (Mr. Goss), who it is a pleasure to work with; the
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), who provides such strong
leadership; the other members of the committee, who do such honorable
work; and the bright and dedicated staff that we serve with and who
serve us so well.
Mr. Chairman, we have debated many bills this year. I am not sure we
will debate a more important one for the security and the strength of
our Nation. I want to thank the intelligence community for the hard
work they do, the work on U.S. goals, U.S. programs, U.S. policies, and
U.S. interests. Every day they make us a little bit more secure.
I want to say, too, Mr. Chairman, that the events of 9-11 may not
have been absolutely preventable; but mistakes were made, failures were
made, there were gaps and cracks that the snakes crawled through on 9-
11, and we intend to fix them and to close those gaps. There are too
many stovepipe agencies that make communication difficult across
agencies, there is still too much outdated technology, there is still
too many old structures and cultures, there is not enough emphasis on
human intelligence and language skills and analytical capabilities; and
we need to work on ways to turn information into knowledge to help
mitigate and prevent future attacks.
This bill takes significant steps forward in those areas. But there
is a very important caveat written in our report that I encourage all
Members to read on page 13: investment, but not in old structures. New
resources, but not toward old ideas and old mistakes.
We say on page 14, and I quote, "The committee must emphasize,
however, that investment alone, without reorganization or reform of
some of the basic components and practices of the intelligence
community, will not provide effective national intelligence
capabilities."
President Lincoln, in one of the most dire times in our Nation's
history, when we were fighting in the Civil War, said, "As the times
are new, we must think anew and act anew." That is certainly the
challenge today as we are in a global war on terrorism. Let us think in
new ways to reform the old structure and make it new so that these
investments in language, in analytical capabilities, and in human
intelligence pay off and make our country stronger.
Mr. GOSS. Mr. Chairman, I am very pleased to yield 4 minutes to the
distinguished gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Chambliss), the chairman of
our Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security, and the partial
author with the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Harman) of the recent
report that has been well received on the first outing of our efforts
on counterterrorism.
(Mr. CHAMBLISS asked and was given permission to revise and extend
his remarks.)
Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairman for yielding me
this time, and I say to my chairman and our ranking member what a great
job they have done in leading our committee; and to the staff, I do not
think I have ever worked with a greater staff on both sides of the
aisle than what we have in the Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence, and I thank both for that.
To my ranking member on my subcommittee, the gentlewoman from
California (Ms. Harman), who has been such a great partner in this
effort to fight this war on counterterrorism, what a great partner she
has been in this.
I rise today in support of H.R. 4628, the Intelligence Authorization
Act for fiscal year 2003. As chairman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism
and Homeland Security, I have spent considerable time these past months
reviewing the capabilities, gaps, and needs of the intelligence
community. In fact, last Wednesday we released the unclassified summary
of our report to the Speaker on gaps in counterterrorism capabilities
at CIA, FBI, and the National Security Agency.
{time} 2320
It is true that the community was not adequately prepared for the
events of September 11, 2001, and the report was very critical in some
areas. By and large we found that in spite of the best efforts of this
body and the many hard-working rank-and-file on the front lines in the
intelligence community, not enough resources and effort were dedicated
to key mission areas, such as HUMINT and SIGINT over a protracted
period of time.
Available resources, moreover, were sometimes redirected by senior
community managers away from core collection and analytic activities to
feed a growing bureaucracy at headquarters.
There were not and still are not enough CIA agents on the streets of
the world collecting against our enemies. NSA's signals intercept and
exploitation capabilities, once second to none, are now badly in need
of retooling.
There are insufficient foreign language capabilities, both to conduct
effective intelligence operations against terrorists and to exploit
material acquired in such operations.
The FBI lacked analytic capability to enable it to pursue preventive
measures rather than simply to respond to crimes that have already been
committed. And no one was sharing information in such a way that all
the consumers with a need-to-know actually got everything relevant to
their responsibilities.
While no single authorization bill can hope to fix all of these
problems, H.R. 4628 will give the community the means to get its
collective house in order by addressing the most pressing of these
shortcomings. The intelligence community will be in a position to hire
more collectors, analysts, linguists, and technicians. It will be able
to make long-needed investments in infrastructure, systems integration,
and training that will pay significant dividends over the long-term and
will, perhaps, make it possible to penetrate the hitherto impenetrable
terrorist organization at a level sufficient to get at plans and
intentions.
Resources alone, however, will not be enough. Community managers will
have to get moving on reform before new intelligence dollars will have
full effect. The community must accept this criticism in the right way;
and upon that being done, I am confident that long-needed reforms of
the community will be hastened by this bill.
As one notable example, DCI George Tenet, in response to our report,
repealed the human rights guidelines that have had a chilling effect on
counterterrorist recruitment operations since 1995.
Will H.R. 4628 stop all future 9-11-type attacks? No one can make
such a guarantee, but this bill will make it much more likely we will
have the intelligence capabilities to identify and thwart such hostile
actions in the future. We are going to be facing potentially
catastrophic threats from terrorists and other adversaries over the
long haul. This is not something we are going to be able to stop on a
global basis all at once. Therefore, it is critically important that we
move swiftly to make the necessary investments in our intelligence
capabilities that H.R. 4628 provides.
Mr. Chairman, I urge passage of this bill.
The neglect of the 1990s in the form of decreasing resources and
political support for intelligence can never be allowed to be repeated
in this country. And it will necessarily require considerable time and
effort on all our parts to correct. America needs and deserves an
intelligence capability that is second-to-none, and as 9-11 proved, we
do not yet have that capability.
Rather than the Cold War threats of old, today's threats are likely
to be aircraft hijackings, suicide bombings, cyber attacks, the
poisoning of agriculture or our water supply, the use of biological or
chemical agents, or the use of radioactive materials to devastate
cities. Such threats require a much more innovative and robust
Intelligence Community than we have ever had before.
I urge all of my colleagues to vote for H.R. 4628. This bill will
move us towards the kind of Intelligence Community all Americans need
and deserve. We simply cannot afford to wait
[[Page H5421]]
any longer to make the necessary investments. H.R. 4628 will make
America safer.
Mr. BISHOP. Mr. Chairman, I yield 7 minutes to the gentlewoman from
California (Ms. Pelosi), the ranking member of the Permanent Select
Committee on Intelligence.
Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I thank the distinguished gentleman for
managing this bill for the Democrats and for the gentleman's
distinguished work on the committee.
I have to be excused for having to be upstairs in the Committee on
Rules speaking for the rule on the homeland security bill which will
come to the floor hopefully tomorrow.
I begin by complimenting the gentleman from Florida (Chairman Goss)
for the manner in which he has guided the committee. He has been
consistently fair and always true to his word. I think that is a great
compliment and one that he deserves completely. The committee's
reputation for bipartisanship has been enhanced by his disposition
toward encouraging and respecting the views of all of our members, as
will be clear when we see how easy it is for this bill to pass on the
floor.
The chairman has explained well the provisions of the bill. It
recommends substantially more money, many billions of dollars more,
than was provided for the current fiscal year. If the amounts
recommended in the bill are appropriated, the community will receive
the largest one-year increase in funding on a percentage basis in at
least the last two decades. Much of this increase is directly
attributable to the September 11 attacks.
Although no amount of money can guarantee that there will not be
additional instances of terrorism, the funding recommended by this bill
should make it harder to undertake in a successful way future terrorist
attacks like those conducted on September 11. The committee's priority
must be on making sure that this money is spent well on programs and
activities that will produce results, not only against terrorism, but
against other important intelligence targets as well.
We have worked very closely in a bipartisan way on our committee
under the leadership of the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Goss). I want
to commend the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Bishop), the gentlewoman
from California (Ms. Harman), the gentleman from California (Mr.
Condit), the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Roemer), the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Reyes), the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Boswell), the gentleman
from Minnesota (Mr. Peterson), and the gentleman from Alabama (Mr.
Cramer) for their distinguished service on the committee as well, and
join others in commending the staff for the excellence of their work
and their service to our country.
I leave it to the distinguished chairman to recognize the majority
members, but every one of them makes a tremendous contribution to our
country's security.
Intelligence is integral to that security, to the protection of the
American people and our national interests at home and abroad. Whether
our interests are defined as providing security to a special operations
team in Afghanistan or passengers in an airliner in the skies over
California, timely and reliable intelligence is a necessity.
Although there may be differences over the manner in which some
intelligence activities are conducted, and indeed we have our
differences, I think we all place a high value on the protective
responsibility being discharged effectively by the intelligence
community. To do that, a big investment in technology and in people is
needed. The investments necessary to enhance mission success in this
area are recommended in this bill.
Mission success is produced by things other than money. The world has
changed greatly since I joined the committee 10 years ago. I think I
have served longer on the committee than anyone. Now my service is
coming to an end. At that time, 10 years ago, the intelligence
community was primarily focused on the aftermath of the collapse of the
Soviet Union. Today, as we know, it is primarily focused on fighting
terrorism.
I have been concerned that the intelligence agencies have not been
quick enough to recognize the changes in training, tactics and methods
of operation required to shift from dealing with a fixed target, like
the Soviet Union, to more nimble targets like the terrorists and the
proliferators of weapons of mass destruction. I think the record
suggests that the shift has been harder to accomplish than had been
presumed. In fact, in some areas it has not been fully implemented yet.
For example, the pace toward creating a more diverse workforce in the
intelligence community, and in improving the language capabilities of
the workforce, have been too slow. Although I recognize that the
relatively small number of new employees able to be hired across the
community since the end of the Cold War made that a difficult
challenge, today a significant increase in the workforce is happening
through an acceleration in hiring, and it presents a tremendous
opportunity for us to attract and reach out for the diversity that will
make mission success more possible.
I expect that community leaders will use this opportunity by
redoubling their efforts to attract and advance people with diverse
religious, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, and with capabilities in
those languages in which the agencies have traditionally been weak.
H.R. 4628 does much to emphasize language training and to provide
incentives to maintain proficiency. Partnerships with entities outside
the government to improve the language skills of current employees, as
well as new hires, are encouraged. An amendment is expected to study
the feasibility of establishing a reserve core of linguists. These are
good initiatives which do much to address one of the intelligence
community's biggest needs. I commend the gentleman from Indiana (Mr.
Roemer), the gentleman from California (Mr. Condit), the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Reyes), the gentleman from New York (Mr. Boehlert), and the
gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Gibbons) for their leadership within the
committee on the language issue. Their efforts have been assisted from
outside the committee by the gentleman from California (Mr. Farr). He
knows well the importance of this issue, the Defense Language Institute
is located in his district, and he has worked tirelessly to improve
language training programs.
The bill continues to emphasize the kind of human and technical
collection programs necessary to deal with targets like terrorist
groups. This emphasis, however, should not ignore the imbalance across
the intelligence community between collection and the ability to make
use of that which is collected through timely processing, exploitation,
and dissemination.
Progress has been made on dissemination, which was one of the most
important intelligence shortcomings during the Gulf War, but not enough
attention has been paid to making sure that analytic capabilities are
sufficient.
{time} 2330
Agencies need more analysts, more translators, and more equipment to
speed the process of converting data into intelligence. This bill
provides some much needed funding in these areas. I hope that the
administration will sustain these important initiatives in future
budget submissions.
Finally, Mr. Chairman, we are rapidly approaching the first
anniversary of September 11. The terrorist attacks of that day are
always on our minds. Although the World Trade Center site has been
cleared and the rebuilding of the Pentagon proceeds, the mourning for
the victims continues and the life of the Nation has been affected
profoundly. The committee is engaged in a process of evaluating the
performance of the intelligence agencies in the months leading up to
the attacks and in assessing how that performance can be improved to
better ensure our security in the future.
An important step in that process was taken last week with the
release of the report on intelligence capabilities prepared by the
Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security, ably led by the
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Chambliss) and the gentlewoman from
California (Ms. Harman). The report will be a valuable tool for the
inquiry being conducted jointly by the House and Senate Intelligence
Committees. When the report of the joint inquiry is completed, I
believe the Nation will have a better understanding of the strengths
and weaknesses of our
[[Page H5422]]
intelligence agencies on September 11 and how weaknesses can be
addressed.
The report of the joint inquiry, however, will be limited necessarily
by the jurisdiction of the intelligence committees. Despite our best
efforts, many of the questions of the families of the victims will not
be answered by the committee's work. We owe those families the most
thorough and independent investigation possible. Examining all of the
issues raised by the attacks will require, in my judgment, an
independent commission. I hope such a commission will be established
soon. I commend the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Roemer) for his
leadership on this issue. I look forward to discussing his amendment.
In closing, I want to acknowledge, again the contributions of my
colleagues. I will continue my remarks during the amendment process.
Mr. GOSS. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the
gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Gibbons), a decorated pilot from the
services and the distinguished chairman of the Subcommittee on Human
Intelligence, Analysis and Counterintelligence which covers quite a
spectrum.
(Mr. GIBBONS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the intelligence
authorization bill and I thank my friend and colleague from Florida for
yielding me this time.
This is a good bill, Mr. Chairman. It addresses intelligence needs
that were identified in past years by the Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence, but only now, after the deaths of many innocent
Americans, are these needs getting the broad attention they deserve?
Throughout much of the 1990s, after the end of the Cold War, there
was a debate about whether America really needed to spend so much on
defense. As for intelligence, some people even said there was no longer
any need for the CIA. I believe, and indeed I believe America believes,
that this debate is now over. As we know now, prior to September 11, we
simply did not have enough intelligence on the plans and intentions of
foreign terrorist groups. We paid a high price for that lack of
intelligence. The bill before you today will help the intelligence
agencies build up their capabilities.
If you want to know the plans and the intentions of terrorist groups,
you have to have HUMINT, human intelligence. This is the information
you get from human sources, known as "assets" or "agents" or just
plain "spies." I want to emphasize that this year's intelligence
authorization bill does a great deal to strengthen our HUMINT
capability.
For one thing, there is money to hire more CIA operations officers.
Last fall after the September attacks, our committee freed CIA's
operations officers from the Deutch guidelines, implemented by former
CIA Director John Deutch, which literally tied the hands of our CIA
intelligence operatives working against so-called "unsavory
characters," such as terrorists and narcotics traffickers.
Since last fall, America's intelligence operatives have been doing a
great job, but they are now few and far between. We need more and this
bill will help ensure that there will be more. This bill also provides
money to hire more intelligence analysts and language specialists.
Likewise, there is more funding for foreign language training. It is
not hard to understand that if your operations officers and analysts
have not learned the language of your enemy, you will not succeed in
learning his plans and intentions.
In addition, to help strengthen our linguistic expertise nationwide,
my Intelligence Committee colleague the gentleman from Indiana (Mr.
Roemer) has offered an amendment to establish a nationwide linguistic
reserve corps. I am happy to cosponsor his amendment. These HUMINT and
foreign language-related items are just some of the good provisions in
this intelligence authorization bill. They are long overdue.
In sum, we have a good bill that provides the proper resources to the
intelligence community for this year. The clock is ticking and
America's enemies continue with their planning. I urge your support for
our intelligence professionals, and I urge your support for this bill.
Mr. BISHOP. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the
distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Reyes), a very valuable member
of our committee who has former ties to the Border Patrol.
Mr. REYES. I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.
Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of this bill. First I want to
thank both Chairman Goss and Ranking Member Pelosi for developing a
bill that is designed to meet the intelligence challenges that our
Nation is currently facing. Their leadership on critical intelligence
issues has been an inspiration and very noteworthy for all of us on the
committee.
Since the events of September 11, we have been wrestling with many
issues in our quest to enhance our intelligence-gathering capabilities.
It is apparent now more than ever that intelligence is the cornerstone
in successfully prosecuting the war on terror and securing our
homeland. Chairman Goss and Ranking Member Pelosi have ensured that
this outstanding bill provides for the funding and the policy guidance
to get this job done. I thank them for their continued commitment to
our Nation and to our committee.
One of the things that we have also learned is the need for reliable
human intelligence. The lives of our citizens are much too valuable to
be trusted to proxy agents. This bill addresses this issue. We need
analysts and case officers with language skills and expertise in
foreign areas. At both the NSA and CIA, literally thousands of pieces
of data are never analyzed, or are analyzed after the fact because
there are too few analysts and even fewer with the necessary language
skills.
I am proud to have played a role in the construction of this bill,
especially the components of it that exemplify the mindset of thinking
out of the box, something that will be essential in our future success
in fighting terrorism. If we do not innovate and ride the dragon of
change, then surely that dragon will ride us. That is why I am
especially proud to be a cosponsor of the gentleman from Indiana's
amendment to authorize additional funding for the national security
education program and to establish the national flagship language
initiative.
One of the lessons we have learned in the current conflict is a
shortage of qualified linguists who are central to intelligence-
gathering operations such as interrogations and signals intelligence.
This bill will alleviate that shortage.
Mr. Chairman, I urge all my colleagues to support this bill.
Mr. GOSS. Mr. Chairman, I am very pleased to yield 2\1/2\ minutes to
the distinguished gentleman from Illinois (Mr. LaHood).
Mr. LaHOOD. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the intelligence
authorization bill and thank our good friend and colleague, the
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Goss) for the good work that he does and
also the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) for the good work
that she does and all the members of the committee and the staff.
I would like to take just a couple of minutes also to praise the
dedicated men and women of our intelligence agencies. America's rank
and file intelligence specialists were working hard prior to September
11. Since then they have been working overtime and in overdrive, and
there is no let-up in sight. Our intelligence authorization bill gives
these dedicated professionals the resources they need. I strongly urge
colleagues to support it. I am proud of our committee's work. It has
been a strong bipartisan effort that we can all be proud of.
This year's bill helps build its human intelligence capabilities.
HUMINT, the information we get from individual human sources overseas,
is something we need a lot more of. We need to know a lot more about
the internal workings and plans of terrorist groups. Every American
understands that we have enemies who are plotting future attacks. We
need to maximize our ability to neutralize these plots, and this bill
provides funding and resources to do just that. The bill helps address
the crying need for more foreign language expertise in the intelligence
agencies. Each agency has traditionally been responsible to hire and
train an adequate number of linguists, but no agency has ever been able
to meet its goals, and the lack of foreign language capability remains
a community-wide problem.
[[Page H5423]]
Ladies and gentlemen, it stands to reason that if America's
intelligence officers cannot understand what our enemies are saying to
each other, we will never be able to adequately protect our citizens
and our interests.
{time} 2340
However, with our bill Congress steps into increased resources for
language training and for transition efforts across the entire
intelligence community.
Let me just say that when the amendment of the gentleman from Indiana
(Mr. Roemer) to establish a commission comes before the floor, I will
strongly oppose that amendment and speak against it as strongly as I
can. I think it is an ill-timed amendment, and I hope we do not pass
it.
In conclusion, I repeat I am proud of America's rank-and-file
intelligence professionals, and I likewise am proud of the Permanent
Select Committee on Intelligence's work to provide them the resources
they need. I urge strong support of all Members for this bill.
Mr. BISHOP. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cardin).
(Mr. CARDIN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. Chairman, I thank my friend for yielding me this
time.
Mr. Chairman, I want to congratulate the gentleman from Florida (Mr.
Goss), the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), and all of the
members of the committee for bringing forward an excellent bill. I
encourage all of my colleagues to support the legislation.
I wholeheartedly agree with the committee's report that the success
of intelligence normally goes unnoticed, for obvious and correct
reasons, while failures seem to be immediately brought to the public's
eye.
I want to commend the dedicated and hard-working employees of the NSA
in my district who work tirelessly in secret with little public reward
or praise for their many accomplishments.
Mr. Chairman, I have visited NSA on many occasions, and I agree with
the committee report that there are two critical challenges that NSA
faces. One is sufficient linguists. We have talked about that already
today, the fact is that the inability of budget support to attract
sufficient linguists has compromised NSA's mission and that we need to
improve the current language programs. The legislation before us
authorizes additional funds for us to be able to accomplish that very
important challenge.
The second issue is how to deal with the buy-versus-make policy for
the outsourcing of nonmission critical programs. I think the committee
report addresses that issue appropriately.
Mr. Chairman, the bottom line is that this legislation provides the
additional resources to our intelligence community so they can collect
and analyze the necessary information, set the priorities as to what is
important for national security, and do that in a timely way. It also
at NSA provides resources for additional research to protect U.S.
communications.
I think this is a very balanced bill. It is a bill that responds to
the security challenges of our Nation, providing the resources and
providing the direction that is necessary, and I urge my colleagues to
support the legislation.
Mr. GOSS. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the
distinguished gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Hoekstra), a very valuable
member of the committee.
Mr. HOEKSTRA. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of H.R. 4628,
the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003. Over the past
decade, Americans have witnessed extraordinary changes in the
international security environment. To the average American, some of
these new threats were unforeseen. To others, they were simply
unimaginable.
We live in a different world than that which existed prior to
September 11, 2001; and this body is obligated to ensure that every
step is taken to protect our Nation against all threats, new and old.
Mr. Chairman, H.R. 4628 provides important funding that permits the
intelligence community to better confront these threats and ensure
greater security of Americans at home and abroad.
It is a good, a bipartisan bill. H.R. 4628 addresses numerous
intelligence needs, some of which have been underscored by the dramatic
events of the past year.
One of the country's most important weapons in the war on terrorism
is a diverse, well-trained and experienced intelligence personnel.
Intelligence officers, whether they are collectors, analysts, linguists
or support personnel, have been working in an overload capacity since
9-11. These brave, patriotic men and women deserve the recognition of
this body, and H.R. 4628 takes steps to encourage these officers to
continue their tireless service to the country by recommending for them
fair compensation, benefits and stronger career planning.
In addition to receiving enhanced specialized training and collecting
and analyzing critical intelligence, these officers need strong foreign
language skills to operate effectively in parts of the world where our
adversaries might lurk. H.R. 4628 addresses the intelligence
community's critical need for better language training, targeting
specific training for its officers as well as the long-standing issue
of the recapitalization of specific technological intelligence
platforms.
Mr. Chairman, this Member urges support for H.R. 4628.
Mr. BISHOP. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GOSS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished
gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Burr.)
Mr. BURR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of
the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003. As a member of
the Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security, I am particularly
eager for this bill to be voted into law.
During the course of the 107th Congress, the subcommittee, which
began as a Speaker's working group in January 2001, heard testimony
from dozens of intelligence officials, both at home and abroad, from
counterterrorism commissioners, foreign officials and hosts of other
terrorism experts. In the end, we found an intelligence community that
has suffered severely over the protracted period from budget shortfalls
and poor internal management decisions about the allocation of
available resources. Significant collection gaps, not just in the realm
of counterterrorism, were identified, and many of these problems have
proven to be systemic.
H.R. 4628 provides a significant new resource for the most neglected
areas of the community and guidance for how the most pressing gaps can
be expeditiously closed. The community's most crucial counterterrorism
shortcomings, as we judged in a classified report released in
unclassified summary form last Wednesday, are as follows: a chronic
linguistic shortfall across the community; a shortage of core human
intelligence collectors out on the streets in bazaars hunting potential
terrorist spies; a culture of risk aversion that has permeated
collection operation and is manifest in the CIA's 1995 "Internal Human
Rights Guidelines" promulgated by Director of Central Intelligence
John Deutch. These management-generated guidelines have tied the hands
of those brave men and women on the front lines for far too long.
George Tenet finally repealed these guidelines just last Thursday,
the day after the counterterrorism gaps report was released, and some 7
months after he was directed to do so in the fiscal year 2002
intelligence authorization.
The community also lacks analysts in sufficient numbers and with
sufficient skills at the CIA, FBI, and NSA to connect all the dots out
there that are being unearthed and examined in isolation. The FBI needs
to change its culture and traditional methods of operating from
emphasis on after-the-fact.
Does H.R. 4628 solve all the problems? No one authorization could
possibly do that. But this bill takes us further in terms of targeting
resources than we have seen in some time. I submit this bill is
critical in getting the intelligence community on the right track and
that there is no time to waste in this endeavor.
Mr. GOSS. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the
distinguished gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Everett), a valued member of
the committee as well.
Mr. EVERETT. Mr. Chairman, I, too, rise today in strong support of
H.R.
[[Page H5424]]
4628, the Intelligence Authorization Bill for Fiscal Year 2003. I am
proud of the bipartisan work that went into the crafting of this bill.
The gentleman from Florida (Chairman Goss) and the ranking member, the
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), deserve a great deal of
credit for this bipartisan effort and the great product that we have
before us today.
{time} 2350
It would be disingenuous to state that all is well within the United
States intelligence community. The House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence has been for a number of years identifying a number of
major shortfalls and providing for our foreign intelligence needs. We
have identified shortfalls, major limitations in human intelligence
officers and assets. We have pointed out the limited capabilities this
Nation has with respect to foreign language specialists. We have
identified problems with aging systems and capabilities. And we have
identified a serious problem with respect to taking calculated risks in
collecting critical intelligence against those who would do our Nation
harm.
Mr. Chairman, this bill represents a major step forward in correcting
many of these problems by funding programs, operations, and personnel
that are vital to the security of this Nation. This bill is important
in particular in that it begins to focus on modernization and upgrading
our signals intelligence capacities. It provides funding authorizations
to modernize capabilities that have long been ignored.
Although I am supportive of the fund recommendations and policy
directions of this bill, I have been personally concerned that it may
be difficult for a national security agency to effectively obligate the
large infusion of funding. Therefore, the bill directs executive
oversight actions for these acquisition programs of the National
Security Agency. I believe the guidance and direction in the bill will
result in honest appraisals and recommendations to the Congress to
ensure the taxpayers' dollars are most effectively spent. I feel this
is a good bill that balances the increased investments against critical
priorities with procedures, and I recommend its passage to my
colleagues.
Mr. Chairman, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 4628, the
Intelligence Authorization Bill for fiscal year 2003.
I am proud of the bipartisan work that went into the crafting of the
bill. Chairman Goss and our Ranking Member, Nancy Pelosi deserve a
great deal of credit for this bipartisan effort and for the great
product that we have before us today.
It would be disingenuous to state that all is well within the United
States Intelligence Community. The House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence has been for a number of years systematically identifying
a number of major shortfalls in providing for our foreign intelligence
needs. We have identified funding shortfalls, major limitations in
human intelligence officers and assets. We have pointed out the limited
capabilities this nation has with respect to foreign language
specialists. We have identified problems with aging systems and
capabilities. And, we have identified a serious problem with respect to
taking calculated risks in collecting critical intelligence against
those who would do our nation harm.
Mr. Chairman, this bill represents a major step forward in correcting
many of these problems by funding programs, operations, and personnel
that are vital to the security of the United States. This bill
represents the largest increase for foreign intelligence funding in our
a decade, and provides the necessary resources for improving our
efforts to protect the homeland and support our forces--civilian,
military and diplomatic--waging the current war on terrorism. The
policies and programs in this bill will enable us to strengthen our
intelligence capabilities to ensure the best foreign intelligence
efforts possible.
This bill is important, in particular, in that it begins to focus on
modernizing and upgrading our signals intelligence capabilities. It
provides funding authorizations to modernize capabilities that have
long been ignored. While focusing on modernization, it maintains a fair
balance to ensure that current and legacy capabilities continues to be
viable and contribute to our national security efforts by providing the
necessary collection and analysis capabilities.
Although I am supportive of the funding recommendations and policy
directions in the bill, I have been personally concerned that it may be
difficult for the National Security Agency to effectively obligate the
large infusion of funding. Therefore, the bill directs specific
executive oversight actions for these acquisition programs of the
National Security Agency. I believe the guidance and direction in the
bill will result in honest appraisals and recommendations to the
Congress to ensure the taxpayers' dollars are most effectively spent.
Mr. Chairman, this bill puts a great deal of emphasis on getting the
Intelligence Community "back to the basics." In short, this bill
begins to correct the systemic problems that left us under-prepared for
warning against the terrorist attacks on America.
I feel that this is a good bill that balances the increased
investment against critical priorities with procedures for effectively
monitoring the wise investment of the taxpayers money. Mr. Chairman, I
urge my colleagues to support H.R. 4628.
Mr. BISHOP. Mr. Chairman, we have no further requests for time. I
think the bill has been very adequately explained and debated. It is a
good bill, and I urge my colleagues in the House to support it.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of our time
Mr. GOSS. Mr. Chairman, I want to congratulate the Members for their
participation and their help in explaining what this bill does for the
American people and our national security.
Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank my colleagues,
Congressmen Farr, Roemer, Gibbons, and Reyes, for their leadership in
taking steps to establish a Civilian Linguistic Reserve Corps. As we
search for ways to improve the functioning of our intelligence
agencies, we must take advantage of our existing resources, including
individuals highly trained in linguistics. In fact, the idea of
utilizing citizen linguists was presented to me by one of my
constituents who is a former U.S. Army Arabic linguist. He shared
useful suggestions regarding how we can benefit from the skills of
linguists, such as himself.
The Civilian Linguist Reserve Corps would be comprised of United
States citizens with advanced levels of proficiency in foreign
languages who would be available to perform services using these
foreign languages as the President may specify.
I compliment my colleague Sam Farr for working to establish a
registry of these linguists, which the Civilian Linguistic Reserve
Corps builds upon. The Defense Language Institute (DLI) is located in
Monterey, California in Rep. Farr's district. The DLI trains many
members of our military in languages such as Dari, Pashto, Urdu, Uzbek,
Georgian, Chechen, and Albanian. We cannot afford to lose these
capabilities and the Civilian Linguistic Reserve Corps is a perfect
solution to facilitate the continued service of these linguists.
Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in strong support of the
fiscal year 2003 Intelligence Authorization bill (H.R. 4628). Since the
end of the Cold War we have permitted our intelligence community to
grow weak by under funding accounts and imposing politically correct
restrictions. Our nation cannot afford to keep its guard down. The live
of our citizens are at stake.
This legislation moves us forward in reconstructing our intelligence
gathering and analytical capabilities. H.R. 4628 builds on the progress
of last year's authorization measure adding more money in critical
areas we have now identified as deficient in the analysis of the
attacks on our country last September 11.
This week the House will vote on the biggest restructuring of our
government in 50 years so that we better meet the challenges of
terrorism. But we should never think that structural changes alone
could bring security. H.R. 4628 addresses a critical dimension of our
security needs--better intelligence for early warning.
This legislation enhances efforts to rebuild our Nation's human
intelligence capabilities: sharpening skills and expertise and
strengthening presence and reach. The measure addresses shortfalls in
our intelligence community's analytical abilities so that we might
fortify that capability and provide consumers of intelligence the
precise data and thorough analysis they require.
The measure also shores up shortfalls in the Defense Department's
signals intelligence and Unmanned Airborne Vehicle programs. Directly
addressing the shortage of capability in interrogation, the measure
enhances our ongoing efforts to acquire valuable information from
combatant detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
Finally, the measure addresses the essential need to upgrade our
intelligence community's language skills programs. I spent 10 years as
an operation officer in the CIA. Five of those years were spent
overseas in the Far East where my language training and ability was an
important tool in my daily routine and success. I know that language
skills are critical to operational effectiveness. Not only must we
improve these skills for our operations officers but also for our
communications specialist and analysts.
Mr. Chairman, recently the Greek police arrested ten members of the
Revolutionary Organization November 17. This elusive group
[[Page H5425]]
has terrorized Greece for over 25 years killing more than a dozen
diplomats, civilians and police officers.
One person killed by that group was Richard Welch, the CIA station
chief in Athens, whose name had been exposed by an anti-intelligence
publication. Masked gunmen had cut him down in front of his home, a few
days before Christmas. I remember his murder well. Later I would meet
his widow and work with the late Senator John H. Chafee to pass the
Intelligence Identities Protection Act in 1982 to protect other
clandestine operatives from similar assassination.
The dismantlement of this group is timely in that it reminds us of
the importance of intelligence work today, and the risks involved for
many who serve in our intelligence community. I find comfort that the
assassins of Richard Welch have been captured, that Greek citizens are
free of its terrors, and that justice may finally be served.
Mr. Chairman, our intelligence community remains on the front lines
of the war on terrorism. Many of them serve with great courage and
without recognition. Many of them gather information at great risk to
their lives and those of their families. They provide information of
great value to the defense of our nation. This bill brings more
resources, tools, skills, and more assets to the people whose tireless
and courageous efforts help protect our nation.
I strongly support this legislation and applaud the members of the
committee and the staff on their fine work.
Mr. GOSS. Mr. Chairman, I too am happy to yield back the balance of
our time.
The CHAIRMAN pro tempore (Mr. Petri). All time for general debate has
expired.
Pursuant to the rule, the committee amendment in the nature of a
substitute printed in the bill is considered as an original bill for
the purpose of amendment, and is considered read.
The text of the committee amendment in the nature of a substitute is
as follows:
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the
"Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003".
(b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents of this Act
is as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
TITLE I--INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES
Sec. 101. Authorization of appropriations.
Sec. 102. Classified schedule of authorizations.
Sec. 103. Personnel ceiling adjustments.
Sec. 104. Community Management Account.
Sec. 105. Authorization of emergency supplemental appropriations for
fiscal year 2002.
TITLE II--CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY RETIREMENT AND DISABILITY SYSTEM
Sec. 201. Authorization of appropriations.
TITLE III--GENERAL PROVISIONS
Sec. 301. Increase in employee compensation and benefits authorized by
law.
Sec. 302. Restriction on conduct of intelligence activities.
Sec. 303. Sense of Congress on intelligence community contracting.
Sec. 304. Semiannual report on financial intelligence on terrorist
assets (FITA).
Sec. 305. Modification of excepted agency voluntary leave transfer
authority.
Sec. 306. Additional one-year suspension of reorganization of
Diplomatic Telecommunications Service Program Office.
Sec. 307. Prohibition on compliance with requests for information
submitted by foreign governments.
Sec. 308. Cooperative relationship between the National Security
Education Program and the Foreign Language Center of the
Defense Language Institute.
Sec. 309. Establishment of National Flagship Language Initiative within
the National Security Education Program.
Sec. 310. Deadline for submittal of various overdue reports.
TITLE IV--CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Sec. 401. Two-year extension of Central Intelligence Agency Voluntary
Separation Pay Act.
Sec. 402. Prohibition on implementation of compensation reform plan.
TITLE V--DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES
Sec. 501. Use of funds for counter-drug and counterterrorism activities
for Colombia.
Sec. 502. Protection of operational files of the National
Reconnaissance Office.
Sec. 503. Eligibility of employees in intelligence senior level
positions for Presidential Rank Awards.
TITLE I--INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES
SEC. 101. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
Funds are hereby authorized to be appropriated for fiscal
year 2003 for the conduct of the intelligence and
intelligence-related activities of the following elements of
the United States Government:
(1) The Central Intelligence Agency.
(2) The Department of Defense.
(3) The Defense Intelligence Agency.
(4) The National Security Agency.
(5) The Department of the Army, the Department of the Navy,
and the Department of the Air Force.
(6) The Department of State.
(7) The Department of the Treasury.
(8) The Department of Energy.
(9) The Federal Bureau of Investigation.
(10) The National Reconnaissance Office.
(11) The National Imagery and Mapping Agency.
(12) The Coast Guard.
SEC. 102. CLASSIFIED SCHEDULE OF AUTHORIZATIONS.
(a) Specifications of Amounts and Personnel Ceilings.--The
amounts authorized to be appropriated under section 101, and
the authorized personnel ceilings as of September 30, 2003,
for the conduct of the intelligence and intelligence-related
activities of the elements listed in such section, are those
specified in the classified Schedule of Authorizations
prepared to accompany the bill H.R. 4628 of the One Hundred
Seventh Congress.
(b) Availability of Classified Schedule of
Authorizations.--The Schedule of Authorizations shall be made
available to the Committees on Appropriations of the Senate
and House of Representatives and to the President. The
President shall provide for suitable distribution of the
Schedule, or of appropriate portions of the Schedule, within
the executive branch.
SEC. 103. PERSONNEL CEILING ADJUSTMENTS.
(a) Authority for Adjustments.--With the approval of the
Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Director
of Central Intelligence may authorize employment of civilian
personnel in excess of the number authorized for fiscal year
2003 under section 102 when the Director of Central
Intelligence determines that such action is necessary to the
performance of important intelligence functions, except that
the number of personnel employed in excess of the number
authorized under such section may not, for any element of
the intelligence community, exceed 2 percent of the number
of civilian personnel authorized under such section for
such element.
(b) Notice to Intelligence Committees.--The Director of
Central Intelligence shall notify promptly the Permanent
Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of
Representatives and the Select Committee on Intelligence of
the Senate whenever the Director exercises the authority
granted by this section.
SEC. 104. COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT ACCOUNT.
(a) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized
to be appropriated for the Community Management Account of
the Director of Central Intelligence for fiscal year 2003 the
sum of $176,179,000. Within such amount, funds identified in
the classified Schedule of Authorizations referred to in
section 102(a) for the Advanced Research and Development
Committee shall remain available until September 30, 2004.
(b) Authorized Personnel Levels.--The elements within the
Community Management Account of the Director of Central
Intelligence are authorized 350 full-time personnel as of
September 30, 2003. Personnel serving in such elements may be
permanent employees of the Community Management Account or
personnel detailed from other elements of the United States
Government.
(c) Classified Authorizations.--
(1) Authorization of appropriations.--In addition to
amounts authorized to be appropriated for the Community
Management Account by subsection (a), there are also
authorized to be appropriated for the Community Management
Account for fiscal year 2003 such additional amounts as are
specified in the classified Schedule of Authorizations
referred to in section 102(a). Such additional amounts shall
remain available until September 30, 2004.
(2) Authorization of personnel.--In addition to the
personnel authorized by subsection (b) for elements of the
Community Management Account as of September 30, 2003, there
are hereby authorized such additional personnel for such
elements as of that date as are specified in the classified
Schedule of Authorizations.
(d) Reimbursement.--Except as provided in section 113 of
the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 404h), during
fiscal year 2003 any officer or employee of the United States
or a member of the Armed Forces who is detailed to the staff
of the Community Management Account from another element of
the United States Government shall be detailed on a
reimbursable basis, except that any such officer, employee,
or member may be detailed on a nonreimbursable basis for a
period of less than one year for the performance of temporary
functions as required by the Director of Central
Intelligence.
(e) National Drug Intelligence Center.--
(1) In general.--Of the amount authorized to be
appropriated in subsection (a), $34,100,000 shall be
available for the National Drug Intelligence Center. Within
such amount, funds provided for research, development,
testing, and evaluation purposes shall remain available until
September 30, 2003, and funds provided for procurement
purposes shall remain available until September 30, 2004.
(2) Transfer of funds.--The Director of Central
Intelligence shall transfer to the Attorney General funds
available for the National Drug Intelligence Center under
paragraph (1). The Attorney General shall utilize funds so
transferred for the activities of the National Drug
Intelligence Center.
(3) Limitation.--Amounts available for the National Drug
Intelligence Center may not be
[[Page H5426]]
used in contravention of the provisions of section 103(d)(1)
of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 403-3(d)(1)).
(4) Authority.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law,
the Attorney General shall retain full authority over the
operations of the National Drug Intelligence Center.
SEC. 105. AUTHORIZATION OF EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL
APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2002.
(a) Authorization.--Amounts authorized to be appropriated
for fiscal year 2002 under section 101 of the Intelligence
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002 (Public Law 107-108)
for the conduct of the intelligence activities of elements of
the United States Government listed in such section are
hereby increased, with respect to any such authorized amount,
by the amount by which appropriations pursuant to such
authorization were increased by the following:
(1) The Emergency Supplemental Act, 2002 (contained in
division B of Public Law 107-117), including section 304 of
such Act (115 Stat. 2300).
(2) An emergency supplemental appropriation in a
supplemental appropriations Act for fiscal year 2002 that is
enacted after May 1, 2002, amounts as are designated by
Congress as an emergency requirement pursuant to section
251(b)(2)(A) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit
Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 901(b)(2)(A)).
(b) Ratification.--For purposes of section 504 of the
National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 414), any obligation
or expenditure of those amounts deemed to have been
specifically authorized by the Act referred to in subsection
(a)(1) and by the supplemental appropriations Act referred to
in subsection (a)(2) is hereby ratified and confirmed.
TITLE II--CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY RETIREMENT AND DISABILITY SYSTEM
SEC. 201. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
There is authorized to be appropriated for the Central
Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability Fund for fiscal
year 2003 the sum of $351,300,000.
TITLE III--GENERAL PROVISIONS
SEC. 301. INCREASE IN EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS
AUTHORIZED BY LAW.
Appropriations authorized by this Act for salary, pay,
retirement, and other benefits for Federal employees may be
increased by such additional or supplemental amounts as may
be necessary for increases in such compensation or benefits
authorized by law.
SEC. 302. RESTRICTION ON CONDUCT OF INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES.
The authorization of appropriations by this Act shall not
be deemed to constitute authority for the conduct of any
intelligence activity which is not otherwise authorized by
the Constitution or the laws of the United States.
SEC. 303. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY
CONTRACTING.
It is the sense of Congress that the Director of Central
Intelligence should continue to direct that elements of the
intelligence community, whenever compatible with the national
security interests of the United States and consistent with
operational and security concerns related to the conduct of
intelligence activities, and where fiscally sound, should
competitively award contracts in a manner that maximizes the
procurement of products properly designated as having been
made in the United States.
SEC. 304. SEMIANNUAL REPORT ON FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE ON
TERRORIST ASSETS (FITA).
(a) Semiannual Report.--
(1) In general.--Title I of the National Security Act of
1947 (50 U.S.C. 401 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end
the following new section:
"semiannual report on financial intelligence on terrorist assets
"Sec. 118. (a) Semiannual Report.--On a semiannual basis,
the Secretary of the Treasury (acting through the head of the
Office of Intelligence Support) shall submit a report to the
appropriate congressional committees (as defined in
subsection (c)) that fully informs the committees concerning
operations against terrorist financial networks. Each such
report shall include with respect to the preceding six-month
period--
"(1) the total number of asset seizures, designations, and
other actions against individuals or entities found to have
engaged in financial support of terrorism;
"(2) the total number of applications for asset seizure
and designations of individuals or entities suspected of
having engaged in financial support of terrorist activities,
that were granted, modified, or denied;
"(3) the total number of physical searches of offices,
residences, or financial records of individuals or entities
suspected of having engaged in financial support for
terrorist activity; and
"(4) whether the financial intelligence information seized
in these cases has been shared on a full and timely basis
with the all departments, agencies, and other entities of the
United States Government involved in intelligence activities
participating in the Foreign Terrorist Asset Tracking Unit
(managed and coordinated by the Counterterrorism Center of
the Central Intelligence Agency).
"(b) Immediate Notification for Emergency Designation.--In
the case of a designation of an individual or entity, or the
assets of an individual or entity, as having been found to
have engaged in terrorist activities, the Secretary of the
Treasury shall report such designation within 24 hours of
such a designation to the appropriate congressional
committees.
"(c) Definition.--In this section, the term `appropriate
congressional committees' means the following:
"(1) The Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the
Committee on Appropriations, and the Committee on Financial
Services of the House of Representatives.
"(2) The Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee
on Appropriations, and the Committee on Banking, Housing, and
Urban Affairs of the Senate.".
(2) Clerical amendment.--The table of contents contained in
the first section of such Act is amended by inserting after
the item relating to section 117 the following new item:
"Sec. 118. Semiannual report on financial intelligence on terrorist
assets.".
(b) Conforming Amendment.--Section 501(f) of the National
Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 413(f)) is amended by
inserting before the period the following: ", and includes
financial intelligence activities".
SEC. 305. MODIFICATION OF EXCEPTED AGENCY VOLUNTARY LEAVE
TRANSFER AUTHORITY.
(a) In General.--Section 6339 of title 5, United States
Code, is amended--
(1) by striking subsection (b);
(2) by redesignating subsection (c) as subsection (b); and
(3) by inserting after subsection (b) (as so redesignated
by paragraph (2)) the following:
"(c)(1) Notwithstanding any provision of subsection (b),
the head of an excepted agency may, at his sole discretion,
by regulation establish a program under which an individual
employed in or under such excepted agency may participate in
a leave transfer program established under the provisions of
this subchapter outside of this section, including provisions
permitting the transfer of annual leave accrued or
accumulated by such employee to, or permitting such employee
to receive transferred leave from, an employee of any other
agency (including another excepted agency having a program
under this subsection).
"(2) To the extent practicable and consistent with the
protection of intelligence sources and methods, any program
established under paragraph (1) shall be consistent with the
provisions of this subchapter outside of this section and
with any regulations issued by the Office of Personnel
Management implementing this subchapter.".
(b) Conforming Amendments.--Section 6339 of such title is
amended--
(1) in paragraph (2) of subsection (b) (as so redesignated
by subsection (a)(2)), by striking "under this section" and
inserting "under this subsection"; and
(2) in subsection (d), by striking "of Personnel
Management".
SEC. 306. ADDITIONAL ONE-YEAR SUSPENSION OF REORGANIZATION OF
DIPLOMATIC TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICE PROGRAM
OFFICE.
Section 311 of the Intelligence Authorization Act for
Fiscal Year 2002 (Public Law 107-108; 22 U.S.C. 7301 note;
115 Stat. 1401) is amended--
(1) in the heading, by striking "ONE-YEAR" and inserting
"TWO-YEAR"; and
(2) in the text, by striking "October 1, 2002" and
inserting "October 1, 2003".
SEC. 307. PROHIBITION ON COMPLIANCE WITH REQUESTS FOR
INFORMATION SUBMITTED BY FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS.
Section 552(a)(3) of title 5, United States Code, is
amended--
(1) in subparagraph (A) by inserting "and except as
provided in subparagraph (E)," after "of this
subsection,"; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
"(E) An agency, or part of an agency, that is an element
of the intelligence community (as that term is defined in
section 3(4) of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C.
401a(4))) shall not make any record available under this
paragraph to--
"(i) any government entity, other than a State, territory,
commonwealth, or district of the United States, or any
subdivision thereof; or
"(ii) a representative of a government entity described in
clause (i).".
SEC. 308. COOPERATIVE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE NATIONAL
SECURITY EDUCATION PROGRAM AND THE FOREIGN
LANGUAGE CENTER OF THE DEFENSE LANGUAGE
INSTITUTE.
Section 802 of the David L. Boren National Security
Education Act of 1991 (50 U.S.C. 1902) is amended by adding
at the end the following new subsection:
"(h) Use of Awards To Attend the Foreign Language Center
of the Defense Language Institute.--(1) The Secretary shall
provide for the admission of award recipients to the Foreign
Language Center of the Defense Language Institute
(hereinafter in this subsection referred to as the `Center').
An award recipient may apply a portion of the applicable
scholarship or fellowship award for instruction at the Center
on a space-available basis as a Department of Defense
sponsored program to defray the additive instructional costs.
"(2) Except as the Secretary determines necessary, an
award recipient who receives instruction at the Center shall
be subject to the same regulations with respect to
attendance, discipline, discharge, and dismissal as apply to
other persons attending the Center.
"(3) In this subsection, the term `award recipient' means
an undergraduate student who has been awarded a scholarship
under subsection (a)(1)(A) or a graduate student who has been
a fellowship under subsection (a)(1)(B) who--
"(A) is in good standing;
"(B) has completed all academic study in a foreign
country, as provided for under the scholarship or fellowship;
and
"(C) would benefit from instruction provided at the
Center.".
[[Page H5427]]
SEC. 309. ESTABLISHMENT OF NATIONAL FLAGSHIP LANGUAGE
INITIATIVE WITHIN THE NATIONAL SECURITY
EDUCATION PROGRAM.
(a) National Flagship Language Initiative.--
(1) Expansion of grant program authority.--Subsection
(a)(1) of section 802 of the David L. Boren National Security
Education Act of 1991 (50 U.S.C. 1902) is amended--
(A) by striking "and" at the end of subparagraph (B)(ii);
(B) by striking the period at the end of subparagraph (C)
and inserting "; and"; and
(C) by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
"(D) awarding grants to institutions of higher education
to carry out a National Flagship Language Initiative
(described in subsection (i)).".
(2) Provisions of national flagship language initiative.--
Such section, as amended by section 308, is further amended
by adding at the end the following new subsection:
"(i) National Flagship Language Initiative.--(1) Under the
National Flagship Language Initiative, institutions of higher
learning shall establish, operate, or improve activities
designed to train students in programs in a range of
disciplines to achieve advanced levels of proficiency in
those foreign languages that the Secretary identifies as
being the most critical in the interests of the national
security of the United States.
"(2) An undergraduate student who has been awarded a
scholarship under subsection (a)(1)(A) or a graduate student
who has been awarded a fellowship under subsection (a)(1)(B)
may participate in the activities carried out under the
National Flagship Language Initiative.
"(3) An institution of higher education that receives a
grant pursuant to subsection (a)(1)(D) shall give special
consideration to applicants who are employees of the Federal
Government.
"(4) For purposes of this subsection, the Foreign Language
Center of the Defense Language Institute and any other
educational institution that provides training in foreign
languages operated by the Department of Defense or an agency
in the intelligence community is deemed to be an institution
of higher education, and may carry out the types of
activities permitted under the National Flagship Language
Initiative.".
(3) Waiver of funding allocation rules.--Subsection (a)(2)
of such section is amended by adding at the end the following
flush sentences:
"The funding allocation under this paragraph shall not apply
to grants under paragraph (1)(D) for the National Flagship
Language Initiative described in subsection (i). For the
authorization of appropriations for the National Flagship
Language Initiative, see section 811.".
(4) Board requirement.--Section 803(d)(4) of such Act (50
U.S.C. 1904(d)(4)) is amended--
(A) by striking "and" at the end of subparagraph (C);
(B) by striking the period at the end of subparagraph (D)
and inserting "; and"; and
(C) by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
"(E) which foreign languages are critical to the national
security interests of the United States for purposes of
section 802(a)(1)(D) (relating to grants for the National
Flagship Language Initiative).".
(b) Funding.--The David L. Boren National Security
Education Act of 1991 (50 U.S.C. 1901 et seq.) is amended by
adding at the end the following new section:
"SEC. 811. ADDITIONAL ANNUAL AUTHORIZATION OF
APPROPRIATIONS.
"(a) In General.--In addition to amounts that may be made
available to the Secretary under the National Security
Education Trust Fund (under section 804 of this Act) for a
fiscal year, there is authorized to be appropriated to the
Secretary for each fiscal year, beginning with fiscal year
2003, $10,000,000, to carry out the grant program for the
National Flagship Language Initiative under section
802(a)(1)(D).
"(b) Availability of Appropriated Funds.--Amounts
appropriated pursuant to the authorization under subsection
(a) shall remain available until expended.".
SEC. 310. DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTAL OF VARIOUS OVERDUE REPORTS.
(a) Deadline.--The reports described in subsection (c)
shall be submitted to Congress not later than 180 days after
the date of the enactment of this Act.
(b) Noncompliance.--(1) If all the reports described in
subsection (c) are not submitted to Congress by the date
specified in subsection (a), amounts available to be
obligated or expended after that date to carry out the
functions or duties of the following offices shall be reduced
by \1/3\:
(A) The Office of the Director of Central Intelligence.
(B) The Office of Community Management Staff.
(2) The reduction applicable under paragraph (1) shall not
apply if the Director of Central Intelligence certifies to
Congress by the date referred to in subsection (a) that all
reports referred to in subsection (c) have been submitted to
Congress.
(c) Reports Described.--The reports referred to in
subsection (a) are reports mandated by law for which the
Director of Central Intelligence has sole or primary
responsibility to prepare, or coordinate, and submit to
Congress which, as of the date of the enactment of this Act,
have not been submitted to Congress by the date mandated by
law.
TITLE IV--CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
SEC. 401. TWO-YEAR EXTENSION OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
VOLUNTARY SEPARATION PAY ACT.
Section 2 of the Central Intelligence Agency Voluntary
Separation Pay Act (50 U.S.C. 403-4 note) is amended--
(1) in subsection (f), by striking "September 30, 2003"
and inserting "September 30, 2005"; and
(2) in s
