BUILDING CAPABILITIES: THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY'S
NATIONAL SECURITY REQUIREMENTS FOR DIVERSITY OF
LANGUAGE, SKILLS, AND ETHNIC AND CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
PERMANENT SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS
__________
FIRST SESSION
__________
NOVEMBER 5, 2003
__________
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PERMANENT SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE
PORTER J. GOSS, Florida, Chairman
DOUG BEREUTER, Nebraska, Vice JANE HARMAN, California
Chairman ALCEE L. HASTINGS, Florida
SHERWOOD BOEHLERT, New York SILVESTRE REYES, Texas
JIM GIBBONS, Nevada LEONARD L. BOSWELL, Iowa
RAY LaHOOD, Illinois COLLIN C. PETERSON, Minnesota
RANDY ``DUKE'' CUNNINGHAM, ROBERT E. (BUD) CRAMER Jr.,
California Alabama
PETER HOEKSTRA, Michigan ANNA G. ESHOO, California
RICHARD BURR, North Carolina RUSH D. HOLT, New Jersey
TERRY EVERETT, Alabama C. A. DUTCH RUPPERSBERGER,
ELTON GALLEGLY, California Maryland
MAC COLLINS, Georgia NANCY PELOSI, California, Ex
J. DENNIS HASTERT, Illinois, Ex Officio
Officio
HEARING ON BUILDING CAPABILITIES: THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY'S
NATIONAL SECURITY REQUIREMENTS FOR DIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE,
SKILLS, AND ETHNIC AND CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING
----------
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2003.
U.S. House of Representatives,
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to call, at 9 a.m., in room
2212, Rayburn House Office Building, the Honorable Porter Goss
(chairman of the committee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Goss, Boehlert, Gibbons, Hoekstra,
Harman, Hastings, Reyes, Boswell, Cramer, Eshoo, Holt, and
Ruppersberger.
Staff present: Patrick Murray, Staff Director; Merrell
Moorhead, Deputy Staff Director; Mike Fogarty, Counsel; Claire
Young, Chief Clerk; William P. McFarland, Director of Security;
Brandon Smith, Systems Administrator; Barbara Bennett,
Professional Staff; Patrick Kelly, Legislative Counsel/
Professional Staff; Abigail Sullivan, Staff Assistant; Mike
Kostiw, Staff Director, Subcommittee on Terrorism & Homeland
Security; Suzanne Spaulding, Minority Counsel; Wyndee Parker,
Counsel/Professional Staff; Elizabeth Larson, Professional
Staff; John Keefe, Professional Staff; Bob Emmett, Professional
Staff; and Courtney Anderson, Staff Assistant.
The Chairman. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I will
call the hearing to order, but note that unfortunately
Republicans every Wednesday morning have a conference scheduled
at 9 o'clock. And normally we would not call a hearing in
conflict with that, but this was the only time we could get the
real estate. As most folks know, this committee generally meets
in the Capitol in executive session, and our spaces aren't
sufficient for public hearings. So that is why we find
ourselves in these circumstances. I know my colleagues will be
along after they get through their other obligations.
I start by saying good morning, everybody, and thank you
for coming. We will try to do something about the temperature
in the room, which I understand is way too warm right now. We
welcome everyone here today to what we think is an important
hearing examining the national security requirement for
diversity of languages, skills, and ethnic and cultural
understanding within the Intelligence Community.
I think today we have got the right people in the right
places to talk about this, and it is my desire that the
Intelligence Community have the right people in the right place
at the right time to be able to do the job that is necessary
for national security, and that means in a broad globe that has
got a lot of hot spots and problems in it, that we are going to
have a lot of need for a lot of capacity, which we presently
apparently do not have in sufficient quantity.
There are some who come this morning, I know, with the idea
that this is an investigation into discrimination or any kind
of wrongdoing in the community. That could not be farther from
the truth. Obviously in our oversight capacity, we are very
concerned that there never be discrimination. That is against
the law, it is against our standards. And if there were any
matters of that type, those will be handled immediately, and I
think efficiently, by our staff. So we are not starting what I
would say on a negative note. We are trying to start on a
positive note about what are the skills and mixes we need in
our Intelligence Community, and how do we get to them. And it
is in that vein I ask the panelists to address the committee.
We have a full schedule this morning. In an effort to
maximize the time we have to do this, I am going to limit
opening remarks. We are fortunate to have two full panels of
witnesses with us today. I look forward very much to hearing
from each of our witnesses.
The first panel is comprised of representatives from the
Intelligence Community. They will provide an update on the
status of their efforts to maximize the recruitment programs
and strategic hiring and their efforts to retain and promote
within their ranks those employees who bring particular talents
to the table. These are the people with the language skills,
ethnic and cultural understanding of their target sets.
The second panel of witnesses is comprised of a broad range
of professionals from outside the Intelligence Community and
outside the government who will provide their individual
perspectives on how their organizations have addressed similar
issues in the nongovernment context.
Given the time constraints this morning, each of the
witnesses on both panels will be asked to limit their remarks
to 5 minutes. This is required so all witnesses will have the
opportunity to testify, so Members each will be given an
opportunity to pose questions. We will first hear from all of
panel one witnesses and then proceed to questions for panel
one. At the conclusion of questions and answers for the first
panel, which will be halfway through the time, we will proceed
to the second panel.
I want to thank you all in advance for your time and
attention to these issues. Panel one witnesses will be free to
leave after their question-and-answer period if their schedules
require or they so desire.
That about covers the administrative remarks I need to
make. Let me briefly turn to the reason we are here again.
This is an important hearing in the ongoing discussion of
sufficiency of intelligence and capabilities which are usually
held in closed session. I would like our focus to be on three
main areas of interest. First I hope we will discuss the
national security imperative for diversity and language skill
sets and ethnic and cultural understanding. It is obvious to
me, given our extensive and continuing interest in Iraq,
Afghanistan, the Middle East, Indonesia, the Pacific Rim, the
Balkans, Africa, Latin America and many other places, that the
Intelligence Community has a pressing need for such diversity
in the collection and analytical requirement. The Intelligence
Community for many years has been working to address this
requirement.
There is no doubt that the Intelligence Community must
anticipate and respond to the actions of an extremely complex
and heterogeneous target set. Success in collecting against
these targets is inextricably linked to the success of the
efforts within the Intelligence Community to expand its
language capability skill set and its ethnic and cultural
understanding of those very targets. Both intelligence
collection and intelligence analysis benefit from each of these
factors; the ultimate beneficiary, however, the American
people, security we care about.
Second, which relates to the first, it is important to hear
from the Intelligence Community about the progress it has made
in recruiting, hiring, retaining and promoting the people whose
diversity of languages, skills or cultural understanding
enriches and deepens the Intelligence Community's ability to
succeed in defense of America's national security interest.
I believe that the most important factor in intelligence
collection is the human factor. Everybody has heard me say that
a number of times. It is people that make the business work.
Today, perhaps more than ever before in our history, it is
critical that the Intelligence Community recruit and hire only
the highest quality intelligence officers and analysts, train
and develop these officers and analysts to the highest
standards of professionalism, and retain and promote only the
very best intelligence professionals meeting the highest
professional standards and manifesting the necessary
capabilities. To this end the Intelligence Community must
develop and maintain a workforce diverse in language skill and
ethnic and cultural understanding. Without this, the
Intelligence Community simply cannot achieve its mission, steal
secrets, inform policymakers of the consequences. In doing so,
the Intelligence Community must reflect the world in which it
operates.
Finally, it is important for the Intelligence Community to
be an attractive employment opportunity for all people across
this plentiful and bountiful Nation. Based on the testimony
expected from panel one, it seems to me that the administration
understands this clearly. They ought to be commended for their
efforts. They cannot, however, rest on progress made to date.
Those improvements must continue because the Nation's security
depends on it.
The Chairman. Before I introduce panel one, I would like to
turn to Ranking Member Ms. Harman for comments she may wish to
make.
Ms. Harman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to
welcome good friends on the witness panel, and thank you for
bipartisan cooperation on what will now be our fourth public
hearing this fall. This is unprecedented for the House
Intelligence Committee. We have had two public hearings on
civil liberties, one on this topic, and one on prewar
intelligence on Iraq where we had several former Directors of
Central Intelligence and the former Deputy Secretary of
Defense.
Before several Members just arrived, Mr. Holt and Mr.
Boehlert, I was going to comment our side of this dais included
one African American, the first African American elected to
Congress from Florida; one Hispanic, the first elected from his
part of Texas, which has an overwhelming Spanish population,
and first to rise in the senior ranks in the Border Patrol; and
two women elected in 1992 in the year of the woman. We doubled
the number of women in the House. And now we have a few of the
more historical Members of Congress. But my point is similar to
yours, Mr. Chairman, that we can no longer expect an
Intelligence Community that is mostly male and mostly white to
be able to monitor and infiltrate suspicious organizations or
terrorist groups. We need spies that look like their targets,
CIA officers who speak the dialects that terrorists use, and
FBI agents who can speak to Muslim women that might be
intimidated by men, and this is a hearing about that. It is
about capability.
I am planning to share my brief remarks with Mr. Hastings,
but just want to express some concern about developments we
learned of late yesterday. We learned that the honorable Jose
Fourquet, United States Executive Director of the Inter
American Development Bank, who was scheduled to appear on our
second panel, has been advised by officials at the Department
of Treasury not to appear. Last night we also learned that
testimony submitted to the committee by several of the
witnesses on panel one was being recalled for further review by
the Department of Justice and OMB. This is after their
testimony had initially been reviewed and okayed.
These developments obviously are troubling because they
appear to be an attempt to muzzle these agency heads. And the
question is what were these witnesses going to say that was so
worrisome, and how has their testimony been chilled, or has it
been, by this effort? And most importantly, what does this say
about the level of the support in this administration for a
serious effort to bring greater diversity to the Intelligence
Community workforce? I am concerned, and I am sure these
witnesses will enlighten us when they speak.
Without going further, I want to commend you, Mr. Chairman,
for agreeing to hold this important hearing, and it is my honor
to yield the remainder of my time to Mr. Hastings.
Mr. Hastings. I thank my good friend Ms. Harman for
yielding her time and her vigorous effort to make sure that
this diversity effort is pursued. Without your effort, I doubt
very seriously we would be this far along the path, and that
goes to the chairman as well, who has consistently listened to
us and tried to bring about a better understanding with
reference to diversity.
Also, it is a pleasure to work with my colleagues Silvestre
Reyes and Anna Eshoo and Rush Holt, who have had sensitivities
expressed in this area on a continuing basis. And I would be
terribly remiss if I did not mention the extraordinary work
done by Louis Stokes and Julian Dixon and Nancy Pelosi and Tim
Roemer, some of our predecessors who pressed this issue on a
continuing basis. And not to exclude anybody here, but Sherwood
Boehlert takes no back seat to any of us when it comes to
exploring opportunities for all in our society.
Shortly after joining the Intelligence Committee in 1999, I
was disappointed to learn that the presence of women and
minorities remains proportionately below their representation
in the Federal and civilian labor force. In addition, I also
found that the number of minorities in feeder pools possessing
the skills needed for career advancement was disproportionately
small, and that continues to be the case and is an important
point that I would hope that the witnesses will address. While
strides have been made to increase intelligence workforce
diversity, these trends have unfortunately not been reversed.
In order to help the committee better understand this
issue, I hope that our government witnesses will answer some of
the following questions: What training programs have been
instituted to build core mission competencies across
disciplines, and how do you ensure that all employees are given
the opportunity to take advantage of these programs? To what
degree are you holding managers accountable for increasing
diversity and overall competencies of your entire workforce?
What specific challenges exist to implementing the DCI's
diversity strategic plan, and how have you addressed those
challenges?
I hope that our second panel of outside experts will
provide insight into the best management practices of the
private sector that might serve as a model for the Intelligence
Community.
Over the course of my tenure on the Intelligence Committee,
I have had the pleasure of meeting hundreds of America's
intelligence professionals. They are bright, talented and
dedicated to helping our Nation maintain its strategic
advantage. Indeed, they are our Nation's most important
intelligence resource. Building an intelligence apparatus
flexible enough to meet evolving national security requirements
requires greater investment in recruiting, training and
retention initiatives. The community must not only rely on
traditional methods--and any more of you tell me about going to
a college to recruit, I am going to tell you where you can find
some other people other than at a college that can do what you
do, but you must employ innovative methods used by others,
including private corporations.
Success also requires strong, focused leadership on the
part of the Director of Central Intelligence and the heads of
each agency, including the two here today, General Clapper and
Mr. Teets, both of whom I have great respect for. Sustained
commitment today will pay dividends in the future.
One final comment, Mr. Chairman, all the time when we
recruit in this arena, it seems we go recruiting people that
are, for lack of a better expression, A students. I believe I
can do what George Tenet does, and I was a C student.
The Chairman. Thank you.
The Chairman. With regard to the concern about the panel,
my understanding is that there was one witness, Mr. Fourquet,
who was not exactly on the subject on what we are talking about
and has offered to talk to the staff with any observations he
might have, but that the Treasury Department felt that the
subject matter was not appropriate for him as our witness. He
is happy to talk to us. I am not aware of any attempts to
stifle anybody's first amendment rights.
Mr. Reyes. Mr. Chairman, if I could shed some light,
because he was one of the individuals that I actually went out
and asked to come and testify. He was exactly on this issue and
on target. I think the concern that at least was expressed to
me--and I have to say that I object that less than 24 hours--
with less than 24 hours notice, we are told that a member that
was--or an individual that is supposed to testify before this
committee had been pulled by the administration.
The Chairman. Well, I will be happy to look further into
the matter. My understanding was that the testimony had not
been checked, or there was some question about whether he was
speaking on behalf of himself or speaking on behalf of the
Bureau of the Treasury, and I think that that needs to be
sorted out. I apologize to you if he was your choice witness.
We pick our witnesses on what we think will be the committee's
best step forward, and we will look into that.
With regard to the other matters, I am advised somewhat on
some legalese there is a problem, which I will just read. It is
our understanding that yesterday evening's testimony of the
panel one witnesses were reviewed by the White House counsel
and DOJ Office of Legal Counsel in order to ensure that the
administration's position on these issues was accurately
represented. We understand the executive branch needs to speak
consistently on these issues given the legal positions the
administration has taken before the United States Supreme Court
Michigan case Grutter v. Bollinger and other pending and
related legal matters. Justice Department will be representing
the government in a number of legal cases in the future, and
any statements not consistent with the administration's
position can be used against the government in court, and the
resulting review yesterday evening was done in regard to such
concerns.
I note that we still have five witnesses of the first panel
in front of us, so I gather their testimony passed muster and
was consistent with the administration's worries about cases
that might be brought in court on anything relevant to this
issue. It is a shame that we have to go through all this kind
of stuff when we have good witnesses in front of us and rehash
all these things, and I am sure everybody's motives are
extremely pure on it, but I believe it is important now to get
to the business of the committee.
And I am going to introduce Mr. Don Cryer, Special
Assistant to the Director for Diversity Plans and Programs for
the Community Management Staff within the Office of Director of
Central Intelligence, and as such is speaking on behalf of DCI
for the CIA as well as the community management staff.
Mr. Cryer, did I portray that accurately?
Mr. Cryer. Yes, sir.
The Chairman. Honorable James Clapper, Director of the
National Imagery and Mapping Agency. Prior to his appointment
he was vice president and director of intelligence programs at
SRA International. General Clapper's last military appointment
was as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. He is well
known to us. Welcome, General Clapper.
Honorable Peter Teets is the Under Secretary of the Air
Force as well as the Director of the National Reconnaissance
Office. As the Director of the NRO, he is responsible for the
acquisition and operation of all U.S. Space-based
reconnaissance and intelligence systems. This includes the
National Reconnaissance Program. He reports directly to the
Secretary of Defense and the Director of Central Intelligence.
Mr. Teets, good morning, sir.
Honorable William Black, the Deputy Director of the
National Security Agency, has almost 40 years of experience at
the NSA, retiring from NSA in 1997. Prior to returning to NSA,
Mr. Black was assistant vice president and director of
information operations in the advanced technologies, SAIC.
Welcome.
Mr. Armando Rodriguez, who is behind Mr. Teets only because
there is not sufficient room at the table--I am sorry about
that. He will come forward to make his presentation at this
time. He is the Defense Intelligence Agency Chief of the Office
of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity, prior to which
he was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Diversity Management and
Equal Employment Opportunity at the Department of Veterans
Affairs.
And that--I think that is it for the first panel.
I want to seriously look at you and welcome you all and
thank you for coming up. This is a matter of great concern to
us for all of the reasons you have heard expressed. You
understand there are different concerns. Many of us, for
obvious reasons, come at it from different platforms. What we
want to get is the right answer and make sure that the work
that this committee does is in pursuit of that.
I trust that there is nobody here who feels constrained or
muzzled. If they do, I invite you to say so at the time you
make your presentation.
We will start with Mr. Cryer.
STATEMENT OF DON CRYER, SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE DIRECTOR OF
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE FOR DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT, ACCOMPANIED BY
RACHEL STROUD, DEPUTY TO MR. CRYER; JAN KARCZ, OFFICE OF THE
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE FOR ANALYSIS AND
PRODUCTION; AND HAROLD TATE, DIRECTOR OF RECRUITMENT, CENTRAL
INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Mr. Cryer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We appreciate the
opportunity to share with the committee community efforts to
build and retain a workforce with the diversity of language and
skills, ethnic and cultural understanding critical to meeting
the global challenges and threats facing our Nation.
The events of 11 September and the war on terrorism have
intensified the requirement for a creative, high-performing,
diverse cadre of professionals. As the Special Assistant for
the DCI for Diversity Management, I can confidently say that IC
agencies are devoting major effort and resources and
collaborating at unprecedented levels to ensure that we build,
develop the talent we need to get the mission accomplished.
Less than 2 months ago, I had the privilege of testifying
before the Subcommittee on Intelligence Policy and National
Security regarding communitywide initiatives to attract and
retain a diverse workforce. Today we will expand on that
testimony.
Several communitywide initiatives have been developed in
anticipation of the requirement for a diversity pilot project
contained in the House version of the fiscal year 2004
intelligence authorization bill. For example, we are building a
four-element retention strategy designed to accelerate the
development of new workers and to sustain high performance
throughout the workforce. The DCI will establish a special
panel of diverse leaders to recommend strategies to ensure that
we have the diversity of talent, skills and perspectives needed
to accomplish our mission today.
In addition, IC agencies are vigorously engaged in
individual efforts that their directors or representatives will
describe in their testimonies in just a moment. At this point I
would like to ask my deputy Ms. Rachel Stroud to briefly
highlight community diversity initiatives and strategies. Mr.
Jan Karcz, from the Office of the Assistant Director of Central
Intelligence for Analysis and Production, will highlight key
programs to build language capabilities and to recruit, train
and retain analytical professionals. And Mr. Harold Tate,
Director of CIA Recruitment will touch briefly on CIA-specific
activities.
I understand, Mr. Chairman, that our time is limited. We
will interchange these speakers very quickly and stay on our
schedule. Thank you for the opportunity to address this
committee today.
Ms. Stroud. I am Rachel Stroud, and I will address very
quickly some of the Intelligence Community initiatives for
targeted outreach, and this in no way would undercut any group,
but we are speaking on cultural and ethnic diversity.
Following 9/11, stirred patriotism as well as a weakened
job market resulted in a substantial increase in resumes;
however, the increase in minority applications was less
encouraging. We are doing a number of things to build
relationships with institutions such as the universities that
have large minority populations. We have done an IC colloquia
at New Mexico State University, and we are planning one for
Atlanta tomorrow. Some of our targeted marketing initiatives
will use the services of a professional consultant. We are
going to follow CIA's lead they have already done this, and
they are specifically looking at cultural and ethnic groups
including Arab Americans, Chinese Americans and Korean
Americans. We know some of our typical marketing techniques
have not worked.
Another important initiative is the high school outreach
program. If we don't reach young people sooner, they are not
going to know about intelligence careers until they arrive in
college, when it may be too late to influence their choices. We
will be targeting bilingual and bicultural students in English
as a second language programs. We know that the Washington area
is rich in diversity. There are about 300 languages spoken in
our area schools, so we will be looking at doing a pilot in the
Washington area first.
In the area of retention, retention is more than just
keeping employees. It is making sure we create an environment
in which employees can be their most productive. As a
community, we want to pilot a course that will focus on
training first-level supervisors in those areas that would
increase retention and maximize performance.
With regard to retirement eligibles and replacements, we
know that a recent GAO study found that more than half the
senior SES members are eligible to retire or will retire by
October 2007. We haven't collected all the community data on
retirement eligibles, but we think we mirror this figure very
closely.
We have asked our intelligence agencies to apply predictive
models to forecast hiring and attrition and ongoing trends over
the next 5 years and to develop strategies to address areas of
legitimate concern. We are concerned about competition with the
private sector now and into the future. We have hired the
Hudson Institute, the renowned Author of Workforce 2020, to
analyze the U.S. Labor force in relation to IC skill
requirements and to make recommendations. In that study, we
want them to look at the private sector and our competition
there. In their recommendations, we expect that they will make
recommendations that may very well impact our personnel
authorities or suggest for new personnel authorities.
This concludes my segment, and I will turn it over to Mr.
Jan Karcz from the office of the Assistant DCI for Analysis and
Production.
Mr. Karcz. Good morning.
Regarding foreign languages, one of the strategic goals
articulated in the DCI 2003 Strategic Direction for
Intelligence Community Foreign Language Activities is to invest
in people, and towards that end the DCI has appointed the ADCI/
AP as the senior authority responsible for guiding and
overseeing foreign language issues within the IC. Dr. Lowenthal
chairs a community body of senior agency officials, the Foreign
Language Executive Committee, which coordinates and shares best
practices amongst the agencies.
The community is actively seeking qualified candidates to
cover its global responsibility, but this remains a challenging
task. A large applicant pool is necessary to meet an Agency's
language proficiency and security requirements. As an example,
the FBI must process 10 applicants in order to hire 1 that
meets their requirements. Several agencies have also recently
reviewed and launched initiatives to enhance language incentive
programs as a principal means of maintaining their foreign
language expertise internal to their own organizations.
Turning to the analytic workforce, we recognize that the
quality of our intelligence analysis is determined by the
strength of our analytical corps. The community is making
concerted efforts in this area to recruit, train and develop
our analysts. Although the September 11 terrorist attacks have
substantially increased the demand and supply of new analytic
recruits, the community remains hard-pressed to retain people
with expertise in certain geographic areas, languages and
disciplines.
In collaboration with several prominent research
institutes, the ADCI/AP is starting an initiative entitled The
Future of the Analyst, which is looking precisely at the issues
that are the focus of today's briefing.
In order to better understand and manage the analytic
community, the ADCI/AP has developed the Analytic Resources
Catalog, which tracks individual analysts by their assignment,
experience, language expertise and education. This catalog is a
critical tool for senior managers not only to identify
analytical expertise and language skills in times of support
crises to support surge requirements and to fill analytic
shortfalls, but also to monitor the overall health and manning
of the analytic community.
Other initiatives currently under way include the National
Intelligence Priorities Framework, which identifies countries
and intelligence topics of greatest concern to policymakers.
The DCI uses this framework to provide guidance to the
community about intelligence objectives, which in turn
influence decisions on community resources.
Mr. Chairman, the DCI and the Intelligence Community he
heads remains committed to building an analytical corps second
to none as we confront the transnational and regional
challenges that threaten our national security. The analysts of
the future must be well educated and expert in their area of
responsibility, equipped with the most advanced analytical
tools, fluent in at least one and oftentimes several foreign
languages, and committed to their profession. The initiatives
and programs we are working on are important components of our
national investment in our analytical corps.
I will now be followed by Harold Tate of the Central
Intelligence.
Mr. Tate. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member
Harman. I want to share with you some of the efforts we have
underway in the Central Intelligence Agency to enhance our
workforce.
For us, diversity of our workforce is absolutely critical
to our mission because we are in the business of selecting a
mix of skills, experiences and perspectives, including language
area expertise, overseas experience and various backgrounds to
achieve this mission. To this end we do operate a proactive
nationwide program that is focused on finding individuals with
the skills we need to develop the jobs. We are also targeting
all languages, but especially the high-priority languages of
today: Arabic, Chinese, Kazakh, Korean, Pashto, Persian and
Urdu.
In fiscal year 2002, 14 percent of all our new hires claim
proficiency at the level 2 level and above in Arabic, Chinese,
Japanese and Korean. Forty-three percent of all our core hires
in the past fiscal year claimed a foreign language, and 28
percent of all of our analytic hires did the same.
We are quite proud of the record on diversity in terms of
hiring. We maintained a level of 20 percent or higher since
fiscal year 2000. To achieve this we have targeted our
marketing and advertising campaigns. We have collected
information from focus groups around the Nation so we are
developing ads and information that attracts.
On the retention front we have instituted within the Agency
a best management practices program best designed to not only
address issues of development of the workforce, but also
management leaders of that workforce, because clearly to
address any retention issues, it all starts with management
leadership.
Finally, in March of 2002, we created the Central
Intelligence Agency University to bring all of our training and
leadership and development activities under one umbrella. Under
the CIAU, we have also established the Intelligence Language
Institute and hiring of language instructors to increase the
size of the instructors available as one of our highest
priorities this fiscal year.
The Chairman. Mr. Cryer, does that complete your--the team.
I notice that the 5 minutes has expired.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Cryer follows:]
Prepared Statement of Don Cryer, Special Assistant to the Director of
Central Intelligence for Diversity Management
Mr. Chairman, I appreciate this opportunity to discuss with the
Committee IC efforts to build and retain a work force with the
diversity of languages, skills, and ethnic and cultural understanding
that is critical to meeting the increasingly complex, urgent and
diverse challenges the IC faces now and in the future. The events of 11
September and the war on terrorism have more acutely accentuated the
requirement for a creative, energized, and diverse cadre of
professionals. As the Special Assistant to the DCI for Community
Diversity Management, I can confidently say that IC agencies are
devoting major effort and resources and collaborating at an
unprecedented level to ensure that we build and develop the talent we
need. I also would like to re-emphasize that the DCI has unequivocally
made work force diversity--in languages, skills, and ethnic and
cultural backgrounds--a high priority. Our business is understanding
peoples and cultures--a diverse work force is one of the most the
powerful resources we can have. I would emphasize however that our
targeted outreach efforts will not be conducted in a manner that
undercuts equal opportunity and recruitment for all racial and ethnic
groups, both minority and non-minority. Nor are our diversity programs
intended to achieve proportional representation on the basis of race or
ethnicity.
Less than 2 months ago, I had the privilege of testifying before
Congressman Bereuter's, subcommittee on Intelligence Policy and
National Security, on several Community-wide initiatives designed to
attract and retain diversity. Today, we will expand on that testimony.
Several of the initiatives were developed in anticipation of the
requirements for a diversity pilot project contained in the House
version of the FY04 Intelligence Authorization bill. In addition, IC
agencies are vigorously engaged in individual efforts, which their
Directors or representatives will describe in their testimony.
At this point, I will ask my Deputy, Ms. Rachel Stroud, to briefly
highlight some of the diversity initiatives and strategies we are
pursuing at the Community level. She will be followed by Mr. Jan Karcz
of the Office of the Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for
Analysis and Production who will address some of the key programs and
strategies to build critical language capabilities and to recruit,
train, develop and retain a major segment of the IC work force, our
analytic professionals.
recruitment and outreach
In the aftermath of September 11, 2001 and in waging the war on
terrorism, IC agencies have substantially increased recruitment and
hiring. Fortunately, stirred patriotism, combined with a weakened job
market, have resulted in a significant increase in resumes received
from the public. However, the increase in applications from minority
individuals was less encouraging. We have to do more in relationship
building with minority communities and institutions to overcome the
lack of information and misperceptions about the IC. We are undertaking
several efforts to address this issue:
<bullet> IC Colloquia.--The purpose of the colloquia is to increase
awareness of the role, mission and contributions of the IC among
colleges and universities that have significant minority enrollments
and to foster enhanced recruiting and academic relationships with these
schools. We have held events at Trinity College here in Washington and,
most recently, at New Mexico State University which has a large
Hispanic population. An additional colloquium, scheduled for Atlanta on
November 6, targets African-Americans. We are also considering a
colloquium on the west coast that targets Asian-American students.
<bullet> Joint Recruitment.--IC agencies, individually and jointly
through the IC Recruiting Working Group, participate in a host of job
fairs each year to reach diverse candidates in critical skill areas.
Some examples of career fairs that agencies will jointly participate in
this fall include:
<bullet> Women for Hire, Crystal City, VA;
<bullet> Career Expo for People with Disabilities, Washington,
DC;
<bullet> Asian Diversity for Hire, New York City; and
<bullet> American Indian Science and Engineering Society,
Albuquerque, New Mexico.
In addition, IC agencies will individually participate in many
similar target recruitment activities throughout the year.
<bullet> IC Website.--The IC Website, launched in October 2002, has
been enormously popular. We will continue to enhance the website to
assist visitors in matching their interests to appropriate occupations
and IC agencies. Also, we have begun to add more information that will
appeal to diverse audiences, e.g. information on minority-focused
career fairs and activities in which IC agencies will participate.
<bullet> Targeted Marketing.--This effort involves the development
of marketing strategies tailored to reach specific ethnic, cultural and
minority groups. We know that traditional methods alone, such as career
fairs, will not achieve the results we want. With the assistance of
professional marketing consultants, we will design and place IC ads
that will most effectively attract the right candidates within targeted
groups, to include Chinese Americans, Korean Americans, Arab Americans,
African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and persons with
disabilities. CIA is taking the lead in this effort and the community
will build on what CIA has already successfully accomplished.
<bullet> High School Outreach.--The increasing diversity of the
American population is most apparent in our schools. We cannot afford
to wait until students have moved on to college, when it may be too
late to influence their choice of an academic major or an employer. Our
goal is to reach potential candidates earlier and create an interest in
IC careers with an emphasis on critical skill categories, including
languages. We will pilot our high school outreach program here in the
Washington metropolitan area, a region rich in diversity. We will
target schools offering science and technology, international
baccalaureate programs and other programs that prepare students for the
college majors we need. In addition, we will target bilingual and
bicultural students. Our initial contacts with counselors in some of
our local school systems indicate that their English as a Second
Language programs serve students who speak almost 300 different
languages. While we have to address the significant security issues
that will surface, we cannot afford to disregard this scarce asset at
our doorstep. Some the activities planned include participation in high
school career days, hosting a regional IC Career Fair, and sponsoring
an IC Camp. Ultimately, our objective is to steer high potential
candidates into one of the many IC student programs and convert
successful students to permanent employees.
In FY02, IC agencies employed over 800 students in various
programs, including the Stokes program, internships and cooperative
education programs. Approximately 35% of these students were
minorities. We believe that more can be done to leverage existing
student programs to improve cultural, ethnic, racial and gender
diversity in the Community.
training and development
We have a number of ongoing programs and new initiatives to develop
current and future intelligence officers.
<bullet> The Intelligence Community Officers Program, designed to
professionalize intelligence officers, has over 1400 participants. Over
144 Community officers have achieved certification to date. All IC
organizations are participating in the program, including the FBI,
Department of State and Department of Energy.
<bullet> We have successfully developed and implemented the
Intelligence Community Officers Course, a two-week course that
challenges managers to collaborate and broaden their perspectives in
resolving Community issues.
<bullet> Centers of Excellence for Intelligence Studies. This
initiative of the Community Diversity Issues Board, coincidentally and
fortuitously, mirrors proposed legislation that would provide funding
to support the establishment of university-based Intelligence programs.
We began formulating the concept for Centers of Excellence after being
approached by several minority academic institutions interested in
developing intelligence-related programs of study. It became apparent
that the IC needed to establish guidelines for schools that wanted to
set up such programs. We are reviewing as a model the program
established by NSA for Centers of Excellence in Information Assurance.
CIA has initiated the lead on this effort and will work closely with IC
agencies and staff of the Assistant Director of Central Intelligence
for Analysis and Production.
retention
We view retention as more than keeping employees; it also means
creating an environment in which employees can be at their most
productive level. As our work force ages and the rates of retirement
rise, retention of our newer employees, particularly in core skill
areas, becomes all the more important. On a pilot basis, we plan to
conduct post-hire surveys of new employees 3 to 6 months after arrival
in IC agencies. The purpose of the surveys is to assess the level of
new employee satisfaction and provide feedback to management that will
help them to develop policies and practices to strengthen the culture
of inclusion and improve retention. In addition, we will develop and
pilot a training course for IC managers that specifically focuses on
retention issues. Another important aspect of retention is offering
tools to help employees cope and flourish in today's dynamic and
demanding environment and adapt to various management styles. We are
reviewing options for training that can assist employees in that
regard.
retirement eligibles
A recent GAO Study found that more than half of career senior SES
members will leave the federal government by October 2007 and, if past
appointment trends continue, the diversity of the SES corps will remain
virtually unchanged. While we have not collected and analyzed data from
IC agencies on retirement eligibility, we suspect that the IC mirrors
the rest of the government. We have asked IC agencies to apply a
predictive analysis model to project hiring, attrition and employment
levels by grade and ethnic/racial/ categories over the next five years
and to develop strategies to address legitimate problems. This model
can also assist agencies in projecting retirement losses and the
potential pool of GS-14's and GS-15's that will be available internally
to replace departing senior executives.
competition with private sector
We have contracted with the Hudson Institute, renown authors of
Workforce 2020, to conduct an analysis of the U.S. labor force in
relation to core IC skill requirements, including area studies and
languages. The study will also examine projected labor market
conditions and competition for talent across the various segments of
private industry. The Institute will recommend recruitment and
retention strategies that will make the IC more competitive in
attracting and retaining the talent we need. Some of these
recommendations may very well suggest the need for new or revised
personnel authorities.
language capabilities
Regarding foreign languages, one of the strategic goals articulated
in the DCI's May 2003 Strategic Direction for Intelligence Community
Foreign Language Activities, is to invest in people. Specifically, the
Intelligence Community is charged to ``build and maintain a diverse
work force with the requisite foreign language, analytic, and technical
skills to meet the critical and growing demand for language processing,
analysis, and operational use throughout the Intelligence Community.''
<bullet> Toward that end, the DCI has appointed the ADCI/AP as the
senior authority responsible for guidance and oversight of foreign
language issues within the IC. The ADCI/AP chairs a community body of
senior agency officials, the Foreign Language Executive Committee, to
coordinate activities and share best practices with respect to foreign
language-capable personnel and the tools to enable their work.
The Community is actively seeking qualified candidates to cover our
global responsibilities, but this remains a challenging task. Languages
we are focusing on include Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Kazakh, Korean,
Kurdish, Malay, Pashto, Persian-Dari, Persian-Farsi, Punjabi, Russian,
Serbo-Croatian, Urdu, and Vietnamese. A large applicant pool is
necessary to meet the agencies' language proficiency and security
requirements. FBI, for example, notes that they must process ten
applicants to yield one that meets employment proficiency and security
standards. Given these challenges, the agencies do work together in
terms of sharing best practices.
<bullet> CIA, NSA and DIA have all recently reviewed or launched
initiatives to enhance language incentive programs as a principal means
of meeting their foreign language needs. These include adding hiring
bonuses to their current incentive programs designed to attract and
retain persons with the requisite language skills. DIA is planning to
double its language incentive pay for civilians, and NSA has
significantly increased incentives so that civilian employees may earn
up to $1,000 per month. CIA has launched a Foreign Language Strategic
Program that also addressed improved incentives for language
acquisition and maintenance and offers hiring bonuses that can go as
high as a one-time payment of $35,000 per individual.
<bullet> The DCI has established the National Virtual Translation
Center to serve as a clearinghouse for translations to assist agencies
in meeting their translation requirements. The Translation Center under
the executive agency of the FBI is actively recruiting linguist
resources to network qualified individuals in government, the military,
the commercial sector, and academia to meet our translation
requirements.
<bullet> The DCI has taken steps, as well, to address the sharing
and processing of materials captured in the war on terrorism. He has
established a National Media Exploitation Center under the executive
agency of the Defense Intelligence Agency. The Center achieved initial
operating capability in June 2003 and will serve as another community
resource to triage and process foreign language materials.
analyst work force
Recognizing that the quality of our Intelligence analysis is
determined by the strength of our analytical corps, the Intelligence
Community is making a concerted effort in the areas of analyst
recruitment, training, retention, and development. Although the 9/11
terrorist attacks have substantially increased both the demand and the
supply of new analytical recruits, the challenges of training and
retaining them also have increased dramatically. And despite our
general recruiting successes, the Community remains hard-pressed to
attract and train people with expertise in certain geographic areas,
disciplines, and languages.
In collaboration with prominent research institutions, the ADCI/AP
has undertaken an initiative entitled the ``future of the analyst''
which looks precisely at the issues that are the focus of today's
briefing.
<bullet> One project is focusing on developing ``new quantitative
analytical tools''--and reemphasizing neglected older ones such as
comparative analysis--to better equip the ``analyst of the 21st
century'' to understand and analyze today's complex transnational and
region-specific security challenges.
<bullet> Another project is looking at the gamut of issues
respecting recruitment, training, and retention with an eye to learning
from best practices in the private sector, including the business
community.
<bullet> Still others are aimed at expanding the nexus between the
Intelligence and broader knowledge communities outside the government
through the building of data-bases that will provide analysts with up-
to-date information on future conferences in their fields and the best
expert institutions to tap for outside expertise. A new prominent guest
speaker program will further facilitate analyst outreach to other
knowledge communities.
<bullet> Individual agencies also have undertaken major outreach
efforts, and one challenge for the Community is to better coordinate
them and share the substantive results of such outreach.
To better guide our analyst recruitment, training, and retention
efforts, the ADCI/AP has developed a Community-wide Analytic Resources
Catalog (ARC) of analyst assignments, experience, language expertise,
and education.
<bullet> This Catalog is providing a key management tool for the
DCI, the ADCI/AP, and agency directors across the Community to identify
analytical expertise and language skills in order to support crises,
surge requirements, and analytic shortfalls. It also will help us to
optimally assign Community analysts across the Community to meet
Intelligence priorities.
<bullet> Agencies will update data in the Catalog semi-annually to
ensure that the information remains current.
The National Intelligence Priorities Framework (NIPF) is another
important management tool created by the ADCI/AP that the DCI will use
to provide guidance to the Community about intelligence objectives,
which in turn will influence our decisions on the full range of
Community resources.
<bullet> The Priorities Framework identifies the countries and
Intelligence topics of greatest concern and therefore will guide
investment decisions on analyst recruitment and training.
<bullet> The Framework will help determine the kind of analysts we
should be hiring respecting education, experience, skills, foreign area
expertise, and language ability.
Joint educational experiences within the Intelligence Community
break down cultural barriers, erode organizational stovepipes, and
increase interactivity and collaboration.
<bullet> Toward that end, we will strive to complement the progress
in agency specific training programs with an expanded Community
training component for new and middle-level Intelligence officers. We
are unsure at this time about the course content and organizational
aspects of this initiative, but the ADCI/AP in collaboration with
agency officials will develop it further.
Mr. Chairman, the DCI and the Intelligence Community he heads
remain committed to building and analytical corps second to none as we
confront the transnational and regional challenges that threaten our
national security. The analyst of the future must be well educated;
steeped in knowledge of his or her substantive area; equipped with the
most advanced analytical tools and tradecraft; fully fluent in at least
one and oftentimes several foreign languages; and committed to his and
her profession. The initiatives and programs I have described to you
today are important components of our strategic investment in our
analytical corps.
The Chairman. I think as Mr. Rodriguez comes to take the
table, we will ask General Clapper from the National Imagery
and Mapping Agency to address us.
STATEMENT OF JAMES CLAPPER, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL IMAGERY AND
MAPPING AGENCY
General Clapper. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Congresswoman
Harman. As you know, this is my second time around as an
intelligence agency Director, and I have appeared before this
panel before when I served as Director of the Defense
Intelligence Agency. I commend the committee for holding this
hearing. I think having these hearings is a positive thing to
keep the light of day on this subject.
I would like to mention that Joann Isham, my deputy, who
now, I believe, is the senior woman in the Intelligence
Community. This is a fact of which I am very proud, as both of
us are strongly committed to diversity not only because it is
the right thing to do, but because it is requisite to our
business and inherent to our mission that we look outward to
the rest of the world. This is particularly true in the case of
NIMA where our business is the rest of the world's geography,
thermography, culture, language, et cetera. For us, diversity
is a big deal.
I have enjoyed the senior leadership in NIMA since I
arrived over 2 years ago to foster an inclusive work
environment. We want, like everyone else, NIMA to be the agency
of choice, the employer of choice. A conviction that I have
arrived at after my 4 years as Director of DIA and now into my
third year at NIMA is that the ultimate solution to diversity
and balance is sustained and focused recruiting, and that
basically underlies the philosophy as I have approached it in
NIMA of a number of our fiscal year 2003 recruitment efforts
which will continue to be designed for diversity; for example,
participating in the model U.N. Conference, and we have struck
up an arrangement with that forum. We have diversity
recruitment program managers specifically to focus on that.
Our challenge--of course, NIMA is probably--as the newest
and perhaps lesser known of the intelligence agencies is just
making all of our applicants aware of what NIMA is and what we
do. We have no real change in overall minority or female
representation over the past 2 fiscal years. Our minority
representation increased slightly, four-tenths of a percentage
from 2002 to 2003, from 17.3 percent to 17.7 percent, and our
female representation similarly increased slightly. Now, what
has affected that, we have also transitioned a significant
portion of our noncore occupations to the private sector, and
so that affected our population as a proportion of our overall
government workforce because many of these people who are women
and who are minority members transitioned as contractors
instead of government employees as we outsourced some of our
noncore competency functions.
One thing I would like to highlight which I have come to
believe is extremely important is a practice called alternate
dispute resolution, which has been very successful in resolving
issues that surround equal opportunity before they become
formally litigated. If you enter into formal litigation, it is
my conviction it is a lose-lose for the employee involved and
for the Agency. We have greatly strengthened and energized our
entire training ladder from entry level to our senior
executives, and one of the principal tenets there that we
foster is inclusiveness. And whom we select for these training
courses is something we try to be sensitive to.
For challenges and solutions, I would mention there are--
clearances requirements are going to become more of a challenge
as the demographics of the Nation change, as the population
proportion of minority members increases. The stringent
security requirements, I think, are going to work against us
somewhat in promoting diversity. Not to whine or an excuse, but
just a fact. And the fact that lengthy security clearance
process, I have found, discourages many entry-level candidates
unless we go back and begin the recruitment process as early as
high school, and certainly into college, to get them sort of
connected with us.
And as I mentioned, we don't have the same level of name
recognition, a situation that is going to be complicated when
and if--I will be optimistic--when the National Defense
Authorization Act is signed into law and our name changes to
the National Geospacial Intelligence Agency. So we will have a
public relations channel there.
So we are transformational, and NIMA by definition, since
it stood up in 1996, is transformational. We will continue to
focus throughout on our most important asset, our people, which
they, too, are transforming. Diversity is a mission imperative,
and we are working to maintain an inclusive working environment
that values each employee's unique capabilities and
contributions, and I do hold our seniors responsible for that.
And one of the things I found very effective is a series of
peer reviews when they make personnel actions, which I think is
an imposing sociological impact.
And again, we want to make NIMA the agency of choice for
those seeking a career in the IC, and I will end where I began:
It all begins and ends with focus and intense recruiting. Thank
you, sir.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, General Clapper.
The Chairman. And we turn to Secretary Peter Teets. Mr.
Teets.
STATEMENT OF PETER B. TEETS, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE
OFFICE, ACCOMPANIED BY ANNETTE WYATT, DIRECTOR, EQUAL
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY AND MILITARY EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY,
NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE
Mr. Teets. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good morning to you
and Ranking Member Harman and distinguished members of the
committee. It is a pleasure to be here this morning and have an
opportunity to talk to you about one of my favorite subjects,
which is the NRO workforce.
Our job, of course is to attract, retain, develop, motivate
and keep at work some of the highest-class professionals in the
world, and, of course, our mission is to develop space-based
reconnaissance systems which can serve our intelligence needs.
Clearly the NRO workforce is the key to our success.
We are inherently a joint operation which provides some
diversity in and of itself. We are an organization that is made
up of a sizable number of CIA professionals, Air Force
professionals. We have representatives as well from the Army,
the Navy, the Marine Corps. And also at the NRO, we have
professionals from the National Security Agency, from the
National Imaging and Mapping Agency, NIMA, as well as some
representation from DIA as well. And so we have a certain joint
character here, and we also have, of course, over 12 personnel
systems that we deal with in terms of having these people who
are assigned to us from their mother agencies.
I also want to say with me today is Ms. Annette Wyatt. She
is Director of Equal Employment Opportunity and Military
Employment Opportunity out at the NRO and is part of a strong
Office of Human Resources effort that we have underway. This HR
effort that we have had ongoing now for more than 2 years is
designed really to create a number of initiatives, to define
and manage current and future workforce requirements, to
recruit and retain a diverse world-class workforce, to
implement expanded career development and training programs,
and, of course, to conduct formalized succession planning for
key leadership and technical skill positions.
I would like to now just say a few words, if I may, about
the NRO and diversity. First of all, I want to say that
diversity is one of the core values at the NRO. We have five
core values, and diversity certainly is one of them. I meet
quarterly with what we call our Unity Council, and this Unity
Council is a group that is comprised of the chairpersons from
each of our special emphasis councils, and they are chartered
really to raise management awareness of breadth of diversity
issues.
We have bimonthly cultural awareness programs. I am proud
to say that some of those cultural awareness programs, we have
had distinguished speakers such as Congressman Reyes come out
to the NRO during Hispanic Awareness Month and gave a stirring
talk really to a full auditorium of people who were very
interested of learning Congressman Reyes' background and his
experiences on the border between Texas and Mexico. And it was
a great day, Congressman Reyes. We continue to appreciate it
and talk about it.
We also were fortunate to have a visit from Senator Inouye
at a gathering that we had for Asian Pacific Island Awareness
Month. We have had Congressman Bishop come out during Black
History Month to discuss, again, his perspective on diversity
issues. We have had American Indian representation in terms of
having the group that came out with windtalkers. Diversity is
an important core value at the NRO, and we honor it.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Mr. Teets.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Teets follows:]
Prepared Statement of Peter B. Teets, Director, National Reconnaissance
Office
Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, and distinguished Committee members,
I am pleased to be here today to talk to you about ``Building
Capabilities: The Intelligence Community's National Security
Requirement for Diversity of Languages, Skills, and Ethnic and Cultural
Understanding''.
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) workforce is the key to
its success. Our mission is a complex and critical one and we are
striving to attract, train, and retain the right people to perform this
important work. In order to collect data and information from space,
the NRO conducts space system research and development, manages
acquisitions, conducts launches, and operates overhead systems. The NRO
has an ongoing responsibility to provide pioneering technologies,
systems, and operations methodologies to deliver unparalleled
intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities to our
Nation. To accomplish this mission, the NRO must acquire the nation's
best scientists, engineers, and operators (from both government and
industry) to work as a team focused on providing decisionmakers and
warfighters the information advantage they require.
Today, the NRO workforce consists of a cadre of dedicated,
talented, and innovative personnel committed to mission success and
steadfast in their pursuit of excellence. It comprises a unique mix of
government civilian, military, and industrial professionals who are
managed under more than a dozen different sets of Human Resources
policies and procedures from across the Department of Defense, Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA), and other Intelligence Community Agencies.
This complex workforce embraces a diversity of characteristics,
backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints that have converged within the
NRO and have led to the superb technologies that we deploy.
Our objective is to continue implementation of our strategic human
resource plan that fosters a challenging and productive work
environment; encourages and supports individual career development; and
builds a system that attracts, develops, and retains a talented and
diverse team of professionals able to meet the future challenges of the
NRO. Part of this process involves crafting new ways of hiring people
into the organization. It also involves finding ways to motivate and
satisfy employees at all levels and job classifications and provide the
training and broadening opportunities necessary to develop our future
space and intelligence leaders.
The ability of the NRO to maintain and improve this diverse work
force is challenged by many factors. Skills, knowledge, and abilities
required for the development and operation of space systems are the
same skills, knowledge, and abilities in high demand throughout the
space engineering sector, a demand unlikely to change for the
foreseeable future. The NRO must compete with industry as well as other
government agencies for critical talent.
Recognizing these challenges, we are positioning ourselves to
effectively compete within today's rapidly changing human resources
environment. The NRO Strategic Plan, revised in Fiscal Year (FY) 2003,
placed an increased emphasis on a number of strategic workforce
initiatives undertaken following the creation of the NRO's Office of
Human Resources (OHR) in 2001. Our strategic plan focuses on developing
and maintaining a world-class workforce through three enabling
objectives:
--Creating and maintaining a diverse world-class workforce;
--Mastering program management as an NRO core competency; and
--Developing a state-of-the-art systems engineering competency.
The NRO continues to work toward improving day-to-day personnel
operations as well as fostering workforce transformation to meet future
needs. OHR's Strategic Performance Analysis Group was chartered to
develop HR performance measures and to conduct analytic studies in
support of initiatives addressing workforce issues. We have increased
the use of objective analyses to guide improvement activities and
strategic workforce programs in FY 2003 improved our ability to
effectively manage our diverse workforce.
requirements definition and management
In January 2003, the NRO completed mapping of all parent
organization occupational classification systems into a standard series
of NRO occupational categories. Parent organization variability in
occupation definitions had precluded consistent, actionable analyses in
the NRO for some time. The mapping overcame this impediment and
provided the NRO with its first ever capability to analyze the entire
organization in a consistent fashion along occupational lines.
The first application of the new occupational categories was an
analysis of the NRO's positions to determine that ``tooth-to-tail'' mix
of mission versus support activities. As a result of the analysis, the
NRO was able to gauge the impact of recent reengineering and internal
realignment efforts to free positions for reallocation to mission
activities. These actions have resulted in a 3 percent reduction of the
NRO's support tail in favor of mission elements.
In addition to recent reengineering and realignment activities, the
NRO is initiating its first corporate attempt to project total position
requirements and establish annual position occupation mix targets.
These efforts are driven by the development of the NRO's technical Way
Ahead, which lays out a vision for future programs in accordance with
the NRO Strategic Plan. We have begun to map the space system lifecycle
to the Way Ahead schedules for each system and to determine the
personnel complements that would be required in each phase of the life-
cycle, thus painting an overall picture of future requirements. We have
also begun to outline the concept of operations for a corporate
decisionmaking body to oversee the reallocation of positions to meet
these future needs.
To further support the shift toward a more mission-oriented
occupational mix, a number of functional reviews are underway to
streamline and/or reduce redundancies in capabilities. The largest of
these efforts are an on-going review of positions within the Management
Services and Operations (MS&O) Directorate and a cross-organizational
position review of the NRO's information technology functions.
Additionally, the NRO's newly created Deputy Director for
Administration plans to conduct reviews of embedded support functions
across the organization to assess the feasibility of shared support
alternatives for improved efficiency and effectiveness of support
activities.
workforce recruitment and acquisition
Acquiring the personnel to meet the NRO's manpower requirements is
a challenge. Reasons include rising retirement rates as ``baby
boomers'' leave the government and increasing competitive pressure from
both the private sector and the parent organizations for limited
technical resources. During recent years, the NRO experienced
increasing vacancy rates in its two most critical mission occupations:
engineering and program management. To remedy these vacancy concerns,
the NRO has placed added emphasis on targeted recruiting of engineers
and program managers. The Office of Development and Engineering, for
example, launched aggressive recruiting campaigns in partnership with
the CIA's Recruitment Center. The NRO provided senior technical
personnel for these recruiting campaigns at a number of universities, a
strategy that has proven effective in garnering more interest among
targeted populations. CIA technical hiring for the NRO doubled from
2002 to 2003. Coupled with the Air Force military element's efforts to
improve assignment rates of technical personnel, the NRO saw a marked
improvement in its engineering and program manager vacancy rates.
While the vacancy rates in the NRO's most critical mission
occupations improved in FY 2003, the NRO's overall vacancy rate did not
improve, and in fact, crept slightly higher to 14.4 percent of our
total personnel allocation versus 13.5 percent for FY 2002. This
happened for the following reasons: first, higher operational tempo of
the parent organizations since September 11th has begun to affect the
speed with which vacancies are filled in the space operations and
intelligence occupations. Second, the NRO has seen an increase in the
vacancy rates for non-technical CIA personnel, primarily in the
administration area. This is partly due to the lower priority to fill
such positions in light of the CIA's focus on critical mission skill
recruiting. The implementation of the CIA's Deployed Support concept
also carries inherent delays in staffing support vacancies within the
NRO. At this juncture, the vacancy trends in space operations,
intelligence, and administration are not having a profound impact on
mission accomplishment, but they warrant continued close observation.
training and career development
We continue to expand our workforce development system by adding
new guidance tools and learning opportunities. We have started to
revise our competency models to better reflect the mission requirements
of the 21st Century NRO. We piloted a new, leadership development
course, Leadership Landscape, which provides case studies and materials
tailored to the complex operating environment of the NRO. Also, we have
revised our annual training program call process to provide a more
equitable environment in which employees may compete for placement in
prestigious external training programs. In addition, the NRO continues
to reap benefit from several well-established functional training
centers that are chartered to provide NRO unique, program-tailored
material. The NRO's Acquisition Center for Excellence, for example,
provides acquisition training and support for the NRO and its mission
partners, ensuring common standards and best practices are effectively
integrated into our programs. Furthermore, the NRO established a
Corporate Learning and Development Group to deliver professional multi-
disciplinary development training to improve the overall quality of
management, promote continuous learning, and to acculturate employees
to the NRO's distinctive environment. This element also offers career
counseling services, manages the NRO's robust mentoring program, and
provides other tools to facilitate lifelong workforce learning.
succession planning
In 2002 we began a succession planning program that will ensure
continuity of NRO operations through development of a leadership cadre.
This program identifies critical management positions and the
competencies and experiences required to fill them and allows all
personnel insight into the development required to successfully compete
for these jobs. Individuals may assess themselves against published
requirements and self-nominate for consideration for positions among
other qualified applicants. The construct of this program affords
opportunities for individuals who might not otherwise have been
assessed in the selection process to be considered for our most
critical jobs. In addition to offering new assurance that that NRO
employees can fairly prepare and compete for critical jobs, this
program also holds promise for improving the representation of women
and minorities in these key leadership posts.
the nro and diversity
The NRO continues to emphasize diversity and fairness throughout
the ranks, embracing the characteristics and capabilities that comprise
a multi-cultural workforce and leveraging them to strategic advantage.
To those ends, our Office Of Equal Employment Opportunity and Military
Equal Opportunity sponsors a robust Diversity program that includes:
--Special Emphasis employment programs required by Title VII
29 CFR 1614;
--17 collateral duty Diversity Liaison Officers (DLO) at our
sites around the world responsible for promoting cultural
awareness within the workforce;
--6 Workforce Excellence lectures for our Headquarters
employees; and
--Quarterly diversity-centric meetings between the Director,
NRO and our Unity Council, a group that is comprised of the
chairpersons from each of the Special Emphasis Councils and
chartered to raise management awareness of a breadth of
diversity issues.
In January 2002, we published a new Strategic Plan for Diversity to
augment our ongoing efforts in this area. We are partnered with other
intelligence Community agencies to evaluate recruitment and retention
strategies, and participate in outreach programs to elementary, high
school, and university students. In addition, we are also implementing
an NRO Disabilities Internship Program with four slots identified for
FY 2004. Although the overall representation of minorities within the
NRO's administrative specialties is still below the Bureau of Labor
Statistics benchmark for the U.S. population, the representation of
women and minorities in our technical specialties now exceeds those
benchmarks, as a result of the continued emphasis in this area. Because
the NRO does not have its own workforce and is, therefore, limited in
its ability to influence diversity demographics, it is critical that we
continue to partner effectively with the parent agencies and to achieve
acceptable representation in all NRO occupations.
retention
In addition to improving its approach to acquiring personnel, the
NRO has undertaken efforts to preserve as much NRO experience as
possible within the workforce. With lifelong NRO careers largely a
thing of the past, the NRO has attempted to increase the percentage of
its workforce that has prior NRO experience through deliberate efforts
to bring personnel back following mandatory rotations to their parent
element. The NRO maintains alumni and experience rosters and monitors
the career progress of prior-NRO personnel with an eye to future return
assignments. One NRO element, in fact, has established personnel
practices that expedite hiring of military personnel back into the NRO
following their retirement. These combined efforts paid modest
dividends: we experienced a 3.5 percent increase in the average NRO
years of experience in its workforce from 1999 to 2002 and we expect to
see a continuing upward trend.
the nro climate survey
We are committed to providing our workforce with an environment
that promotes high productivity through tools and infrastructure as
well as a supportive culture. Annually, we conduct a climate survey to
gauge employee satisfaction across the full spectrum of work
environment, diversity, and HR support programs. Since its
implementation in 1998, the survey has been invaluable in helping to
direct and focus workforce programs. Consequently, all factors measured
by the survey now exceed the minimum satisfaction rating and most
factors exhibit high levels of workforce satisfaction. In 2003, all
human resources related factors (like quality of life, training, and
performance recognition) showed a measurable increase in employee
satisfaction.
the future
The NRO continues to improve and transform its workforce to meet
the needs of the future through implementation of several new
initiatives:
First, the Way Ahead--which lays out our vision for future
programs--defines the overarching demand for human resources to meet
future needs. We will continue to assess the overall impacts of this
vision on personnel and their development and drive our workforce
planning and implementation activities commensurate with that vision
and mission.
Second, the NRO Strategic Plan emphasizes mission-critical skills,
particularly systems engineering and program management competencies,
thus further dictating the development of focused plans for the growth
and management of the workforce. While earlier efforts have garnered
some improvements, we must continue to carry out targeted workforce
planning to achieve further advancements. With assistance from our
Deputy Director for Systems Engineering, we plan to conduct a deeper
investigation into the health and dynamics of the engineering and
program management populations, and to identify actions to strengthen
these areas.
Finally, with the advent of the space professional cadre concept,
the national security space community has initiated space-specific
workforce planning activities in a number of the parent organizations
that support the NRO. These activities will enhance the quality of the
NRO's future workforce and will drive other initiatives in management,
development, and utilization of the cadre. In addition, we have drafted
our own strategy for managing space professionals during their NRO
tours with an eye toward meeting our unique mission needs while
ensuring compliance with parent organization standards.
In summary, the NRO is fully committed to creating and maintaining
a world-class workforce to meet the needs of the NRO and of the Nation.
Our people are the key to continuing our long record of unparalleled
accomplishment, innovation, and service and our mission requires the
full commitment and dedication of each and every member of the NRO
team. We will continue to attract, train, motivate and retain the right
people--the best people--to perform our critical work.
The Chairman. We now go to the Honorable William Black,
Deputy Director of the National Security Agency.
STATEMENT OF WILLIAM B. BLACK, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, NATIONAL
SECURITY AGENCY
Mr. Black. Thank you very much, Chairman Goss and Ranking
Member Harman. This is my report to you from the National
Security Agency.
I think it is important for everyone to understand that
what I will talk about is the Federal civilian workforce at
NSA. But the truth of the matter is half of our placement is
military, and also we are spread throughout the United States
and in many other parts of the world, and this has had a major
impact on our people which is absolutely critical to what our
mission is about.
The fact that our work strength had been reduced over
recent years has caused us to concentrate on targeting specific
mission areas and to align our work skills with this because we
have gone through a major transformation in the Agency. We have
taken initial steps to improve our situation by, first of all,
moving our diversity office itself into our human resource
organization so that all of our human resource actions will, in
fact, reflect the diversity on which we are built.
Between the fiscal years of 1990 and 2001, the reduction,
as I mentioned, in our civilian workforce was such that if it
wasn't for this committee's support, we probably would not be
able to grow as we are now and to have the impact we are having
on the workforce. Fifteen percent of the Agency's workforce has
been hired in the last 3 years. The growth projected in our
manpower strategy will allow us to increase that percentage to
40 percent by fiscal year 2008. As an example of the
opportunity presented by this influx of personnel, the Agency
hired 350 minority employees in the past 2 years, which is as
many as we had hired in the previous 4 years.
In this past year, NSA recruiters logged more than 290,000
miles on 268 recruiting trips. These trips have included 27
colleges and universities and significant minority population
in many of these institutions. NSA exceeded its hiring goals in
the last 3 years and maintained its 18 percent diversity hiring
rate. Our students program hired an additional 333 students and
achieved a 21 percent diversity rate.
One goal for the coming year is the creation of a new 2-
year Congressman Stokes program geared toward language
students. We also intend to significantly increase the
percentage of language students accepted into the 4-year Stokes
program that we have had ongoing for several years at NSA and
to develop a High School Native Speaker Program.
While target and mission expertise is critical, the foreign
language proficiency of the language professional is essential.
We must understand not only the words, but the intentions
behind the words. This is defined as ``Level 3'' proficiency,
the formal requirement for working a cryptologic language.
In this new environment, retaining skilled linguist
professionals is particularly important. Earlier this year, we
rewarded professionals who have the requisite language
proficiency by increasing their foreign language and incentive
pay ceiling. And additionally, we recently approved the second
step, the Language Analyst Recruitment Bonus and Milestone
Reward Program, which consists of a recruitment bonus for new
hires and a 2-year Milestone Reward Program to retain linguists
and encourage the Level 3 proficiency which is critical for our
business.
I thank this committee for its support in the last 2 years
in the Intelligence Authorization Act. We are working now on
what we call 21st Century Distributed Learning. This ground-
breaking work revolutionizes our language education through
``just-in-time'' language learning opportunities. We are
sharing this information throughout the Nation and particularly
with Flagship Universities. These universities sponsor programs
designed to produce Level 3 proficient graduates in such
language as Arabic, Chinese and Persian-Farsi.
The DCI has emphasized diversity as a corporate imperative,
a strategic goal, and states, ``our people are our most
precious assets, not satellites or high-speed computers.'' We
have reaffirmed our commitment to diversity well beyond the
recruitment and hiring initiatives mentioned above. Diversity
is not just about fairness. It is mission-critical, and we
incorporated this principle into our strategic and business
planning in the day-to-day operations. People remain, to NSA's
success, a key to the 21st century and beyond. We remain
dedicated to those efforts that will ensure we have a truly
diverse workforce, with the right people with the right skills
in the right jobs.
As we grow the workforce, we have unprecedented opportunity
to further our transformation. We will do this by eliminating
the barriers that prevent a truly integrated, seamless,
cooperative learning and thriving information enterprise. With
your help, we will continue to provide the vital information
that will enable the United States to maintain a decisive
information superiority edge.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of this committee, for
this opportunity to testify.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Black follows:]
Prepared Statement of William B. Black, Deputy Director, National
Security Agency
introduction
Thank you very much Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, and Members of
the Committee for the opportunity to report on the National Security
Agency's (NSA) progress in meeting the Human Resources (HR) and
diversity challenges that are central to the continued transformation
of the NSA. Enhancing our expert work force and effectively leading and
managing our people is a critical task and the key to constructing the
unified, end-to-end enterprise needed to achieve and maintain
information superiority for America.
Since 1999, in concert with the Director of Central Intelligence's
(DCI) Strategic Intent, the transformation of the NSA has been focused
on four strategic goals:
<bullet> Ensure responsive intelligence information and information
assurance for national decision-makers and military commanders.
<bullet> Continuously modernize the cryptologic system by using
advanced technology to provide solutions for the production and
protection of information.
<bullet> Shape the NSA work force to meet SIGINT and Information
Assurance mission challenges.
<bullet> Maximize the use of resources through effective business
processes and prudent risk to achieve and sustain responsive Signals
Intelligence and Information Assurance solutions.
NSA has made great progress in each of these areas but much remains
to be done as we embark on the Director's new vision of Transformation
2.0: Cryptology as a Team Sport. This vision furthers the above goals
by focusing on dependencies not only within NSA/CSS, but increasingly
on dependencies beyond the fence line--in the larger DoD and
Intelligence communities. Faced with a variety of changes that include
increasing the scale and scope of computer network operations;
expanding and in some cases tailoring our products to serve customers
at the federal, state, and local levels; meeting new demands
necessitated by precision targeting; tracking people and discrete
things as well as organizations and nations; and automating processes
throughout the enterprise, we will succeed only by improving NSA's
collaborative relationships across the board.
Our future objectives include:
<bullet> Blending the SIGINT and Information Assurance
missions;
<bullet> Integrating the strategic and tactical SIGINT
enterprise;
<bullet> Transforming customer access to the SIGINT process
stream; and
<bullet> Taking the lead in teaming by enabling more Community
collaboration along our five business lines: get it; know it;
use it; manage the mission; and manage the enterprise.
Because people are key to the successful accomplishment of all of
these goals and their associated programs/initiatives, NSA articulated
a work force strategy that is based on growth, skills alignment and
knowledge transfer. The strategy outlines the Agency's need to grow the
work force to meet increased mission challenges and to acquire the next
generation of SIGINT and Information Assurance professionals. But this
growth will not take place equally across the Agency. It is targeted
toward specific areas and realigns skills to enhance capabilities and
readiness in language, focus on analysis, increase our ability to
exploit the global network, preserve our expertise in cryptanalysis,
strengthen our target development activities, protect our people, and
modestly augment some of the enabling functions. The strategy also
addresses the Agency's critical need to transfer knowledge between the
expert on-board population and the new generation. This is vital to our
future success and a critical aspect of transformation.
NSA has made significant progress in hiring, recruitment,
retention, skills mix, and training. Despite successes in these areas,
NSA recognizes that its diversity is an area in which improvement is
essential to sustaining our mission. NSA also recognizes, of course,
that these steps to ensure diversity in our workforce must be
consistent with the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection. We
have taken initial steps to improve the situation, to include moving
the responsibility for diversity management to the office that has
successfully managed other HR initiatives.
After years of downsizing we are increasing the size of the civilian
work force . . .
Between FY1990 and FY2001 NSA reduced civilian manpower by 32
percent through voluntary means. With this Committee's support, NSA's
manpower authorizations increased by 400 in FY2002, 428 in FY2003, and
965 in FY2004. This growth allowed for significantly increased hiring
programs to fill current vacancies and the additional authorized
billets with 820 new hires in FY2002, 1125 in FY2003, and 1500
projected for FY2004. As the Agency moves forward, it is now working
with the Administration on the budget to increase civilian billets
between FY2005 and FY2008 to enhance the existing work force with the
multidisciplinary, analytic, and technical personnel needed to
transform the cryptologic enterprise.
This growth also presents a significant opportunity to increase
NSA's diversity. Fifteen percent of the Agency's work force has been
hired since FY2001 and the growth projected in the manpower strategy
would allow NSA to increase that percentage to 40 percent by FY2008. As
an example of the opportunity presented by this influx of personnel,
the Agency hired as many minority employees in the past two years (350
in FY2002 and FY2003) as it did in the previous four years (FY1998
through FY2001).
We continue to improve recruitment processes . . .
NSA continues to improve its recruitment processes and expand its
presence in the job marketplace. This past year NSA recruiters logged
more than 290,000 miles on 268 recruiting trips to 102 schools in 44
States and one Territory. As a key part of the effort to hire more than
1100 new employees and build a pipeline for FY2004, these trips
included 27 colleges and universities that have a significant minority
population (i.e., African-Americans, Hispanics, Asian-Pacific, and
Native American) and 19 professional events.
NSA's student programs, especially the Cooperative Education,
Summer, and Stokes Scholarship (formerly Undergraduate Training
Program) programs, serve as a prime source of new employee recruits by
providing college students and graduates with Agency operational
experience. Graduates of these programs can immediately begin
productive and responsible assignments. As such, these programs are key
feeders into the Agency's full-time hiring program.
Other major recruiting improvements include:
<bullet> Establishing an Employee Referral Program, which
encourages Agency employees to refer qualified candidates to
the NSA Office of Recruitment;
<bullet> Doubling participation in Intelligence Community
collaborative recruiting events from 4 to 8;
<bullet> Outsourcing scheduling, welcome center, and data entry
functions, which provides a high level of professionalism;
<bullet> Awarding a new advertising contract, which offered the
opportunity to highlight diversity issues;
<bullet> Refreshing the print media;
<bullet> Enhancing web site features and functionality;
<bullet> Deploying a new auto call center voice mail system to
assist applicants;
<bullet> Hiring recruiters with private sector experience;
<bullet> Initiating a recruiter training curriculum;
<bullet> Publishing the third edition of NSA's award-winning
recruiting CD (recognized for excellence by the national
advertising industry) and effectively using other new
promotional items to market NSA as a quality employer (thanks
to this Committee's support for legislative authority to
execute this function);
<bullet> Using invitation-only career fairs and skill group
interview sessions resulting in over 200 hires; and
<bullet> Establishing a language hiring bonus and awards
program to compete in the extremely competitive language hiring
market.
We would be happy to brief you at a later time on our plans for a
new print media and web site advertising campaign in the spring of
2004.
But we also need to retain talented people . . .
Over the past two years NSA transitioned its workforce to an annual
evaluation cycle that links rewards and recognition directly to
performance. At the same time, NSA encouraged managers to push the
decision level for promotion and awards down to the lowest possible
level so that managers can recognize those who are key to achieving the
Agency's mission. NSA increased the overall budget for recognition (10
percent for promotion and seven percent for awards) at a time when
employees were giving their all to support the Global War on Terrorism.
In addition, the Agency received an additional $2.5 million
specifically to recognize employees whose efforts supported the war in
Iraq.
NSA used retention bonuses to keep critical employees from leaving.
Judicious use of these incentives allowed the Agency to retain just
over 100 personnel primarily within the SIGINT Directorate, the
Information Assurance Directorate, and in Research areas. NSA also set
aside $1.5 million dollars for lump-sum performance awards for
individuals demonstrating outstanding work in several of the Agency's
most important and sensitive missions. Fifty-eight percent of these
funds were offered to personnel working the SIGINT mission and 42
percent were used for the Information Assurance mission.
We've focused our hiring program on core mission skills . . .
One of the pillars of the NSA work force strategy is skills
alignment, i.e., identifying the skill mix necessary to meet future
goals and objectives. This includes evaluating the current work force
skill mix, defining mission goals, matching the skill mix to the
mission goals, and developing a plan to get from ``here to there.''
Hiring efforts in FY2003 were aligned with this plan. Over ninety
percent of all FY2003 hires held a Bachelor's degree or above and the
new hire class holds a 3.41 average G.P.A.
NSA exceeded its hiring goals the last three years and maintained
an 18.4 percent diversity-hiring rate. This is remarkable given that
much of the Agency's hiring took place in the areas of language,
analytical, and technical skills that traditionally have less diverse
applicant populations. In addition, NSA achieved its best diversity
results in computer science, organizational leadership and management,
signals analysis, security, and cryptanalysis.
Student programs hired an additional 333 students and achieved a 21
percent diversity rate while shifting the skills of approximately 25
percent of its FY2003 Cooperative Education, Summer, and Stokes
Scholarship program skills from Electrical/Computer Engineering and
Computer Science to language and intelligence analysis. New for FY2004
is the Graduate Training Program, in which six outstanding technical
undergraduates in Electrical/Computer Engineering, Computer Science,
Systems Engineering, and Information Operations were recruited to
continue their education at the Air Force Institute of Technology
(AFIT) and the Monterey Postgraduate School (MPS). The Committee's
inclusion of language authorizing this program in the FY2003
Intelligence Authorization conference report is greatly appreciated.
In addition, NSA's goals in FY2004 include a new two-year Stokes
Program, geared towards students who have already started the study of
a language in college; a significant increase in the percentage of
language students accepted into the four-year Stokes Program; and the
development of a High School Native Speaker Program, with a projected
implementation date of fall 2004. Through this latter program, NSA will
employ high school seniors, who have a native capability in a
critically needed language, as high school work-study students, then
employ and mentor those students through college while paying their
college tuition. NSA also plans to bring in additional language
students by participating in the Intelligence Community Analyst
Training Program, when it becomes available.
We are particularly focused on language . . .
In the past, much of the foreign language material that NSA
processed for national security was somewhat formatted. We basically
knew who our enemies were and we knew pretty much what to expect. That
is no longer the case. Our enemies can be anywhere, and many of them
would do us harm in ways that were previously unfathomable. While
target and mission expertise is still critical for successful SIGINT
work, the foreign language proficiency of the language professional is
essential to successfully protect our country. We must understand not
only the words, but also the intentions behind the words. This is
defined as ``Level 3'' proficiency, which DIRNSA documented in April
2002 as the formal requirement for working cryptologic language.
At NSA, the Senior Language Authority works in a collaborative
partnership with the Military Services and the Defense Language
Institute/Foreign Language Center (DLI/FLC) on plans to bring the
entire cryptologic language workforce, military and civilian, to Level
3. These plans identify a need for considerable increases in funding to
support adjustments in training, assignments, and numbers of billets.
In this new environment, retaining skilled language professionals
is particularly important. Earlier this year, NSA rewarded the
qualified and stable staff of professionals who have the requisite
language proficiency by increasing the Foreign Language Incentive Pay
ceiling for civilians and encouraging DOD action for commensurate
military increases in Foreign Language Proficiency Pay. In addition,
the DIRNSA recently approved the second step--the Language Analyst
Recruitment Bonus and Milestone Award Program. This program consists of
two parts. First, a recruitment bonus for new hires will be used to
enhance NSA's ability to set starting pay for language analysts at
competitive levels. Second, a two-year milestone award program will
serve as an incentive to retain new language analysts and encourage
them to attain Level 3 language proficiency in the language for which
they are hired.
Thanks to the support of this Committee in the FY2003 Intelligence
Authorization Act, NSA is working with the National Security Education
Program (NSEP) and the National Foreign Language Center (NFLC) on 21st
Century Distributed Learning (LangNet). This groundbreaking work at the
University of Maryland revolutionizes language education in ``less-
commonly-taught languages'' (LCTLs) and at higher levels. This is
accomplished by providing ``just-in-time'' language learning and
maintenance opportunities on demand at a learner's convenience--night
or day--through the Internet. To date, more than 1000 learning objects
in 15 languages have been delivered.
While the optimal language-learning environment remains a
classroom, building a language workforce at the Level 3 proficiency
requires 21st century alternatives. All learning objects align with the
specific learners' preferences and needs based on diagnostic
assessments. All are unclassified and can be shared throughout the
nation at large and particularly with the new Flagship Universities,
which sponsor programs designed to produce Level 3 proficient graduates
in such languages as Arabic, Chinese, and Persian-Farsi. NSA is proud
to support and advocate for this first-ever language-related academic
initiative for our nation.
In calendar year 2005, two major language initiatives will begin . . .
A new capability-driven language testing system will allow NSA to
streamline its language assessments. NSA will go from its current two-
part performance-based testing system to a one-part proficiency-based
assessment of reading and listening comprehension. In alignment with
the Director's goal for all language analysts to maintain a minimum of
Level 3 in reading and listening, additional funding has been allocated
in FY2004 and beyond to provide training opportunities at the NSA
National Cryptologic School with local vendors and, where possible,
immersion training. NSA is committed to providing continuous learning
and development opportunities for its language workforce worldwide. All
language analysts are encouraged to pursue a variety of proficiency
performance opportunities to maintain and improve their language
readiness.
The second major initiative is the Center for Advanced Study of
Language (CASL) at the University of Maryland: The nations' 10th
University Affiliated Research Center (UARC). The CASL at the
University of Maryland will ensure sustained, sophisticated research in
language and linguistics, critical to intelligence work related to the
Global War on Terrorism. CASL represents a significant step toward
strengthening our nation's language competence by building a community
of researchers actively engaged in the practical scientific exploration
of a skill so critical to the defense of our nation.
Intelligence Community and Department of Defense Language Boards
(composed of senior professionals from NSA, CIA, DIA, DLI, FBI, State
Department, and the Services) identified the requirement for the UARC
as part of an end-to-end solution to address and improve the U.S.
government's foreign language deficiency. In addition to its value in
foreign intelligence, the initiative will support effective response to
language skill deficiencies identified by combatant commanders and
combat support agencies.
With an understanding of the critical nature of languages in
national security, CASL will perform innovative research that is framed
in the reality of classified missions. The research paradigm will shift
from a traditional academic approach to a more pragmatic approach,
investigating and improving how language professionals apply their
skills in actual language work. Research will be responsive to the
requirements collected, documented, and prioritized by U.S. government
language professionals. CASL will also support the federal and national
language skill communities by sharing knowledge, conducting independent
evaluations, and fostering language and linguistics education.
CASL will initially be comprised of approximately 80 University of
Maryland staff members and U.S. government personnel, growing to 150 to
200 personnel over the next five years. NSA, collaborating across DoD
and the IC, will coordinate research priorities based upon unique and
crucial needs of member components. NSA, DoD, and IC component agencies
will provide technical leadership for management of the center and will
integrate language professionals from their components into the
research activity itself.
We're ensuring a well-trained work force with current skills to meet
NSA's evolving needs . . .
NSA is committed to providing the highest level of training,
development, and educational opportunities for its employees. In
addition to offering a myriad of in-house, specialized technical, and
cryptologic training, NSA contracts with academia, industry, and
consultants to enhance the business and management skills of the
workforce. NSA has a proud reputation of supporting the continuing
education of its employees, and for FY2004 spent over $6 million to
support continuing after-hours educational endeavors.
NSA is an active partner in the Meyerhoff Scholarship Program
created at the University of Maryland at Baltimore County in 1988 with
a substantial grant from the Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Foundation. The
program supports high-achieving students who are interested in pursuing
doctoral study in the sciences or engineering, and who are interested
in the advancement of minorities in the sciences and related fields.
The National Science Foundation and The New York Times recognized the
program as a national model. NSA has been supporting the program at an
increasing level since 1992. The current grant allows NSA to sponsor up
to 10 students.
The Agency's new Center for Leadership and Professional Development
has begun creating career road maps for the NSA work force throughout
the 22 skill communities to which they belong and creating
opportunities for employees to share technical knowledge and work
experiences. NSA is aligning training and development initiatives with
the mission needs of individuals, professional communities, and
organizations and with values critical to the NSA transformation.
NSA is dedicated to developing ``the leadership in all of us,'' no
matter the level of the organization or the job title of the employee,
whether the individual is a manager or a technical leader or an
individual contributor called upon to lead a project or collaborate
with a partner agency. While NSA's leadership and professional
development efforts are focused primarily on strengthening the
capability of team leaders, supervisors, managers, and senior leaders
to achieve mission success through others, we recognize the need for
all our employees to hone both their technical and leadership skills.
Each NSA employee must be ready to assume leadership roles when the
challenge arises and, for transformation to take hold, each employee
must participate fully in this team sport called ``cryptology.''
Within the Agency's new Center for Leadership and Professional
Development, we launched an ambitious program of training and
development targeted at both basic leadership competencies and specific
management skills. In addition to management and leadership courses, we
are offering opportunities for leadership assessment, coaching,
mentoring, peer networking, and on-line resources to complement and
reinforce learning.
We value diversity . . .
NSA recently increased its ability to link diversity with strategic
Human Resource policies, plans, and programs by placing the Office of
Diversity Management (ODM) in the Associate Directorate of Human
Resource Services (ADHRS). This move emphasizes the importance of
attaining a diverse workforce by including ODM personnel in the
development of strategic manpower management initiatives. The closer
integration of these two offices will greatly increase partnership
opportunities with key human resources personnel responsible for
program development and administration, work force planning,
recruitment and hiring, employee relations, dispute resolution, and
customer service and support.
The DCI emphasizes diversity as a corporate imperative--a strategic
goal--and states, ``Our people are our most precious assets--not
satellites, or light tables or high-speed computers.'' NSA needs to
recruit and retain the best that America has to offer from all of her
people.
NSA has reaffirmed its commitment to diversity well beyond the
recruitment and hiring initiatives mentioned above. Diversity is not
just about fairness; it is mission critical. We incorporated this
principle into our strategic and business planning and day-to-day
operations.
<bullet> NSA employees routinely provide leadership and consulting
services to the Community Management Staff, IC partners, and the
Defense Equal Employment Management Institute.
<bullet> NSA's EEO and Diversity Strategies are clearly linked with
the DCI Strategic Diversity Plan and are fully incorporated into the
NSA Strategic Plan.
<bullet> To ensure that Diversity Management is seen as a
leadership imperative, we modified executive contracts to include
``Leveraging Diversity'' as a critical component for success.
<bullet> We established a team of six Executive Diversity Champions
from the most senior ranks of our business and six Corporate Diversity
Councils with charters designed to enable our business objectives.
<bullet> We continue to offer and provide a wide range of diversity
training to all of our employees.
conclusion
People remain the key to NSA's success in the 21st century and
beyond. We remain dedicated to those efforts that will ensure that we
have a truly diverse work force, with the right people with the right
skills in the right jobs. As we grow the work force we have an
unprecedented opportunity to further transformation by eliminating the
barriers that prevent a truly integrated, seamless, cooperative,
learning, and thriving information enterprise. With your help, we will
continue to provide the vital information that will enable the United
States to maintain a decisive information superiority edge.
Thank you Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee for the
opportunity to testify before you today.
The Chairman. Mr. Rodriguez from the Defense Intelligence
Agency, the Office of Diversity Management and Equal
Opportunity. We welcome you, sir.
STATEMENT OF ARMANDO E. RODRIGUEZ, CHIEF, DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT
AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY, DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Mr. Rodriguez. Representative Goss, Representative Harman,
committee members, on behalf of Admiral Jacoby, Director of the
Defense Intelligence Agency, thank you for the opportunity to
address you today. As you are aware, I am the new Chief of our
Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity, having joined DIA 2
weeks ago. I am honored to talk about the extensive and
innovative programs and initiatives being implemented across
the Defense Intelligence Agency to optimize the Intelligence
Community's capabilities.
I chose DIA over other departments and agencies for their
leadership, commitment to diversity and acquiring a workforce
with the skills required to meet the formidable challenges we
face now and into the future. The key to building DIA's future
workforce are through unprecedented strategic initiatives,
which I will highlight as they are related specifically to the
areas you have expressed.
DIA recruitment, retention and training strategies have
been transformed to create and maintain the critical talent
required to meet the challenges of the 21st century. We have
launched key initiatives to ensure a partnership of highly
skilled people and leading-edge technologies to provide
warfighters, policymakers and planners with assured access
through acquired intelligence.
The competition with the private sector. DIA does compete
with the private sector for talent on both the hiring and
retention fronts. On the hiring front, competition has
increased precipitously with the hope of new private sector
companies making their foray into the intelligence domain.
There has also been additional competition from other IT
organizations as well as States and local governments who are
also building their own intelligence capabilities.
On the retention front, public sector organizations have
been a bigger competitor in the private sector. Of those who
have left DIA over the past 3 years, approximately 40 percent
have indicated their employer has been a public sector
organization, and only about 10 percent private sector
companies. Beginning in fiscal year 2003, we have instituted
rigorous attrition analysis in order to better understand the
factors of attrition. The Agency is also currently developing
corresponding mitigation strategies to address these factors.
In the recruitment and development efforts, our diversity
efforts are overwhelmingly focused on the critical skills area.
We would emphasize, however, that our targeted outreach efforts
will not be conducted in a manner that undercuts equal
opportunity and recruitment of all racial and ethnic groups,
both minority and nonminority, nor are our diversity programs
intended to achieve proportional representation on the basis of
race or ethnicity.
Human Resources has worked with Agency directorates to
develop annual workforce plans which will define the needed
skills. Armed with these skill requirements, Human Resources in
conjunction with Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity
built a recruitment program that targeted a diverse set of
applicants with the necessary skills mix for mission
accomplishment. To assist in this effort, DIA has hired the
services of a professional advertising agency, TMP. TMP has
received national recognition by the Society of Human Resource
Management for three ads designed specifically for DIA. These
ads were recognized in the creative excellence award category
for design and presentation both in black and white magazine ad
category as well as the online advertising. DIA's ad campaign
was designed to reach the broadest audience nationwide.
In fiscal year 2003, DIA embarked on a very intense and
aggressive hiring program to meet the current and future skill
set. DIA participated in 72 recruitment events at academic
institutions, military sites and professional organizations. We
hired over 600 employees in fiscal year 2003, by far the
largest influx of new employees in recent memory.
With regard to development of DIA language capabilities,
DIA has morphed its strategy to meet the growing global
requirements. Today we recruit individuals with a number of
targeted languages. Many requirements for linguists since 9/11
have been filled with contract linguists. DIA has a distinct
advantage in our attacks system in that the majority has
language proficiency. Currently we have a requirement for
nearly 1,000 linguists who will be--who will enhance their
capabilities by being in a country and learning the cultural
context of the area. DIA has--is concentrating on recruiting
people with language capabilities that will support our
requirements.
The ability to replace large numbers of experienced
persons. Challenges associated with the number of recruitment-
eligible employees continues to exist at DIA. Currently 30
percent of our workforce is eligible for some form of
retirement; however, only 10 to 15 percent of those eligible
actually execute retirement options each year. We recognize
this and have identified the need for a formal succession
planning framework to minimize the loss of critical
institutional knowledge and mission-critical skills. DIA's
workforce planning effort is currently developing a succession
planning transition plan that will establish and institute
succession planning into DIA's business processes.
We have made a keen investment to ensure that our
capabilities are the capabilities required to meet the emerging
and evolving mission through our workforce planning efforts.
Today the national security environment requires the Department
of Defense reconsider traditional concepts and think in new
ways about the global threat and our corresponding deterrence,
warning and military superiority strategy. For Defense
Intelligence Agency, the complexity of these challenges and
breadth of the opportunities has never been greater. To address
these challenges and maximize our accompanying opportunities,
we have commissioned a workforce planning project to set a
framework for making fundamental changes to the business
processes and to our workforce.
In summary, we are optimistic about the possibilities and
believe we have a unique opportunity to transform the
intelligence capabilities, personnel and processes to support
those that protect and defend our country and its principles.
DIA is exploring new and innovative approaches to attract and
retain the diversity of skills and capabilities needed in this
very dynamic, global, complex environment in which we live. We
do not intend to let this opportunity pass. Rather, we are
working to seize it and to optimize our capacity to serve our
warfighters, support our planners, and inform our policymakers
so they have the best basis for decision-making possible.
Mr. Rodriguez. Our Nation requires it, our forces depend on
it, and our professionalism demands it.
I want to thank you, Representative Goss, Representative
Harman and committee members. This concludes my statement.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Mr. Rodriguez.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Rodriguez follows:]
Prepared Statement of Armando Rodriguez, Chief, Diversity Management
and Equal Opportunity Office, Defense Intelligence Agency
i. introduction
Thank you for this opportunity to talk about the extensive and
innovative programs and initiatives being implemented across the
Defense Intelligence Agency to optimize Intelligence Community (IC)
capabilities. As the Chief, Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity
Office, DIA, I am pleased to say that the IC agencies are collaborating
at an unprecedented level in sharing ideas, resources and expertise to
ensure that the IC has the diversity and skills that are required to
meet the formidable challenges we face now and into the future.
The keys to building DIA's future workforce are through
unprecedented strategic initiatives, which I will highlight today as
they relate to your expressed areas of interest. DIA recruitment,
retention, and training strategy have been transformed to create and
maintain the critical talent required to meet the challenges of the
21st Century. DIA has launched key initiatives to ensure a
``partnership of highly skilled people and leading edge technologies to
provide war fighters, policymakers and planners with assured access to
required intelligence.''
ii. competition with the private sector
DIA competes with the private sector for talent on both the hiring
and retention fronts. On the hiring front, competition has increased
precipitously with a host of new private sector companies making their
foray into the intelligence domain. There has also been additional
competition from other IC organizations as well as state and local
governments, which are also building their own intelligence
capabilities. On the retention front, public sector organizations have
been a bigger competitor than the private sector. Of those who left DIA
in the past three years, 35% indicated their next employer as a public
sector organization and only 10% as private sector companies. Beginning
in FY03, DIA instituted a rigorous attrition analysis program in order
to better understand factors of attrition; the Agency currently is
developing corresponding mitigation strategies to address these
factors.
iii. recruitment and development efforts to create and maintain a
workforce with the necessary educational, linguistic, ethnic and
experiential backgrounds and skills
I want to emphasize that our diversity efforts are overwhelmingly
focused on the critical skill areas. In the years prior to 9/11, the
focus of DIA's strategic recruitment program focused on academic
disciplines steeped toward analysts, collectors, and information
managers with specialized skills. Directorate requirements changed
little from year to year, and essentially mirrored those skill sets of
the current workforce.
While some efforts were made toward a more strategic approach to
defining future skills requirements prior to 9/11, the terrorist
attacks drove the Agency to accelerate and redefine the very nature of
our intelligence officer and support officer core. DIA's analytical
focus returned to truly ``all source'' analysis, providing immediate
on-demand access to all sources of data. Its collection focus changed
from episodic reconnaissance, primarily from technical collection
platforms, to long-dwell, persistent surveillance, with a heightened
emphasis on Human Intelligence (HUMINT) collection. Information
management focus shifted toward content tagging and building
interoperability at the data, vice systems level, enabling horizontal
integration of information from all sources, at all levels of
classification.
To meet this change in Agency focus, DIA's Office for Human
Resources (DAH) worked with Agency directorates to develop annual
workforce analysis plans which defined the needed skill sets. Armed
with the skills requirements, DAH, in conjunction with the Diversity
Management and Equal Opportunity Office (MD), built a recruitment
program that targeted a diverse set of applicants with the necessary
skills mix for mission accomplishment. Last year, DIA hired a
professional ad agency, TMP. The three DIA specific ads they developed
won National recognition through the Society of Human Resources
Management. The DIA ads were recognized in both the creative excellence
award category for design and presentation, and in the black and white
magazine ad category.
In FY03, DIA embarked on a very intense and aggressive hiring
program to meet current and future skills sets. DIA participated in 72
recruitment events at academic institutions, military sites, and
professional organizations. DIA hired over 600 new employees in FY03,
by far the largest influx of new employees in recent memory!
Hiring:
HIRING RATE SUMMARY
[In percent]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FY01 FY02 FY03
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DIA............................................................. 9 10 16
Federal Government.............................................. *20 **21 ***17
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Based on BLS data from calendar year January-December 2001.
** Based on BLS data from calendar year January-December 2002.
*** Based on BLS data from September 2002-August 2003.
With regard to development of DIA language capabilities, DIA has
morphed its strategy to meet growing global requirements. Over the past
several years, Agency demand for analysts with language capability has
increased significantly. We are transforming a workforce able to meet
multiple global crises, meet the ability to surge as required, and meet
a growing need for a more geographically mobile workforce. Language
capability and cultural awareness via overseas experience enhances our
ability to meet these mission needs.
In addition to an increased language emphasis for our analytical
workforce, DIA's renewed emphasis in the area of HUMINT necessitated a
corresponding increase in the requirement for language skills. Today,
DIA recruits individuals with a number of targeted languages. DIA has a
distinct advantage in our attache system, in that the majority has
language proficiency.
Many requirements for linguists since 9/11 have been filled with
contract linguists. Currently, DIA has a requirement for nearly 1000
linguists, who will enhance their capabilities by being in a country
and learning the cultural context of the area. Reservists offer us
another resource and we are using them in all our operations.
Prior to 9/11, recruitment of analysts and HUMINT personnel with
language skills was highly desired, but not an absolute requirement.
DIA intends to expand and make language proficiency and cultural
orientation mandatory for many of our specialists.
DIA is concentrating on recruiting people with language
capabilities, and targeting recruitment in areas in the U.S. with high
representation of ethnic capabilities that will support our
requirements.
We would emphasize, however, that our targeted outreach efforts
will not be conducted in a manner that undercuts equal opportunity and
recruitment for all racial and ethnic groups, both minority and non-
minority. Nor are our diversity programs intended to achieve
proportional representation on the basis of race or ethnicity.
At the Intelligence Community level, DIA participates in four
recruitment events per year as part of a collaborative effort to
enhance the IC presence at colleges, universities, and professional
association events. Additionally, DIA maintains a presence on the
Intelligence Community Internet website, and has led and participated
in Intelligence Community advertising programs. In fiscal year 2003,
DIA led an unprecedented initiative to develop and publish a joint
Intelligence Community Agency ad, in three of the broadest reaching
minority publications.
The Community Diversity Issues Board (CDIB) maintains a key focus
on academic outreach. We believe the key to effective strategic
recruitment is connect
