One real and one factitiousrr role model. The fictitious one was nancy drew. [laughter] today after the inauguration they marched on the streets of america and the buyer is an expression of fear and anxiety wielding the enormous power with the intellectual capacity walking the halls so soon after your retirement. I would also like to welcome back your wife and my good friend marcia and i want to thank her for your support and willingness to share y. Nown both [inaudible conversations] as a call the hearing to order looking at of nominee director of National Intelligence, uh Trump Nominee congratulations. Welcome back i am sure you did not expect to walk down these also soon after your retirement. But thanks for your wife support to share you with the rest of the country. I have seen firsthand the relationship the iso thoughtfully describe. Simply put its essential to congress to authorize these authorities to help keep the country safe while protecting our constitutional rights. I look forward to working with you and all of my colleagues to reauthorize fisa as soon as possible. Ive known for many years and believe your years of service to our nation and unique i need experience make you a natural fit to lead our Intelligence Community. As mentioned in director Pompeo Pompeo as mentioned to director pompeo and his nomination i can assure you this committee will faithfully follow its charter, conduct vigorous and realtime oversight over the Intelligence Community its operations and its activities. We will ask typical question to you, your staff and well expect on us complete timely responsesr i look forward to supporting your nomination and ensuring its consideration without delay. I want to thank you for your years of service to the country and i look forward to your testimony and i will now recognize the vice chairman for any comments you might make. Thank you mr. Chairman and i also want to welcome you, dan. Congratulations for your nomination to serve as the fifth director of the National Intelligence. We have known each other for many years and i believe the president has made an excellent choice in asking you to serve as dni and let me also echo the chairmans comments and acknowledging a bipartisan member and their wonderful trips we have had together. I would point out the only thing that i might potentially hold against you is that your socalled sure about that you brought along, senator chambliss raises some questions of judgment in my mind but i wontn hold that against you throughout the whole hearing today. Senator coats is wellknown to the Senate Intelligence committee. He served as a Senior Member of this committee for many years and has been an advocate for a surrogate oversight in the Intelligence Community throughout his tenure. Dan firmly believes in the value of intelligence and the importance of its timely, relevant and absolutely free of political influence. As the nations chief Intelligence Officer your job will be to find and follow the truth regardless of where it leads. It all comes down to the obligation that we all talk about on this committee when we served together. Truth to power. To the present to the policy and military leaders to the executive branch to members of congress maintaining your integrity and independence even in the face of political pressure is an absolute requirement of this position. And a job for which he been nominated as many rewards andnas possibly more challenges. Co would we expect lead an enterprise as we talk aboutentei privately of 17 diverse intelligence agencies. In some areas he will have Clear Authority to direct actions. As you know most areas the odi has to also condense rather than simply having to wrest authority youll be expected to serviceas the president s top Intelligence Officer, coordinate and integrate Intelligence Community activities to lead the work to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the intelligence enterprise and insure the integrity of that analyticensure products. While these are just a few of the many issues you will face i know you are up to the challenge i need to make clear even in my Opening Statement one of the first challenges i will ask you to take on, had honest to support our efforts to understand russias interference in the 2016 president ial election. E as you know this committee is conducting an investigation into that interference. We are also looking into whether any individuals associated with u. S. Political campaigns inappropriately engaged with officials of the russian government and we will seek to determine what the intentions of those interactions were. We take this matter very seriously. The chairman and i as well as members of the committee on both sides of the aisle have made commitments at the outcome of this and the will not beno prejudged and the committee will follow wherever the information leads. We need to get it right. Its my intention that this investigation will remain bipartisan and seek to be asan transparent as possible and remain free of any political consideration or interferencelia including, including interference from the white house. I will not accept any process that is undermined by such political influence. This inquiry will be thorough and it will be exhaustive. At the end of the day what we owe most answers to the American Public. Am you know how important this type of inquiry is. Its not about being a democrat or republican nor is it about relocating the 2016 election. This is truly about upholding the core values of the democracy that all americans hold dear. Our plan is to review the raw and finished intelligence and understand how the Intelligence Community made its conclusions on russian interference and i will ask you today again to admit to all members of this committee will fully cooperate this were two and dropped all the Intelligence Community agencies to provide all the information that we require including the wrong information and make sure we get it right. On other topics you and i had a very good conversation in my office a few weeks ago and we talked about the fact that we didnt think you would be back in so quickly. I very much appreciated that conversation and you assured me there that you will not support the return of waterboarding or other socalled enhanced interrogation practices. Nor will you support reestablishing secret intention status operated by the ic. He also assured me that you will always present to the president , his cabinet and advisers and congress the unvarnished facts as represented by the best judgment of the Intelligence Community. Whether that analysis is an agreement or disagreement with the views of the president orr for that matter anyone else. Again i will ask you today to reaffirm those commitments that you made to me and make them publicly. Finally if confirmed, and i loo forward to supporting you, you will have the unique challenge of working for president who has said comments i believe that itt denigrated some of the work of the Intelligence Community. You will have a very incredibly importantll role to make sure tt the brave men and women who serve us often in anonymity thae youll have their backs and that you will make sure the morale of these brave men and women is respected. Senator coats i want to thank you for being with us today if i want to thank you for a willingness to serve and i look forward to working with the chairman. Thank you very much. Through thank you very much chairman. Id like to now recognize her former colleague former vice chair of the least selecten a l chambliss. When i was in the Senate Somebody did this for me. Ive really good to be back in much as i frankly happy to be on the side of the dye is today friend of all. S. 24 after was passed overwhelmingly by created dni was charged with perhaps after 12 years of the creation of a new agency, particularly one as sensitive as this, perhaps a review is in order but there is one thing that cannot be overlooked and that is during 12 years with strong leadership from a commitment of security by the dedicated employees, theyve produced intelligence to the customers that have prevented another largescale attack against america on u. S. Soil. We all know the world is a more dangerous place than ever today. Bad guys are greater in number and more sophisticated in their operations than ever before, thus the strong leadership is more important today than ever. No one is better suited to give the leadership as our friend and former colleague dan coats. As ambassador to germany, he was a customer. As a longtime member of the committee, he participated in conduct an extensive oversight. Now he will be providing the intelligence that is to be subjected to that oversight. His experience prepares hi prepl for these new roles. Ive traveled the world with him many times visiting our counterparts, our allies as well as World Leaders and while for the most part we all know they are friendly and easygoing, i ive had the opportunity being firm and direct in addressing sensitive and difficult issues with all of those individuals that we have visited. In doing so and a very professional manne. Dan asman has been a Public Service since 1976, when he was district director for then congressman dan quayle. He then served in the house of representatives of the United States senate and ambassador tor germany and then again in the u. S. Senate. Now after that remarkable 40 year career dan is willing toee continue to serve his country as as as the dni. Lastly let me say that a lot of dan strength comes from his support he has received from his lovely wife marcia and for whom hes been married to for over 50 years. I loot leave it to dan to deduce or put suffice it to say she has been a great teammate. And using a sports nomenclature there since i still have myll clearance i get some pretty good intelligence from time to time in one piece of intelligence i picked up on about dan is hes a huge chicago cubs fan. Need i say it felt pretty good last fall. One other thing i found out about him is that the day after he and marcia were married he took her to a cubs game and his marriage still survived that. It is my pleasure to introduce to you senator dan coats and i urge all of you to vote for dans nomination to the floor of the Senate Quickly and very quickly confirm him as the new director of National Intelligence. Thank you mr. Chairman. , thank you. Do you solemnly swear to give the committee the truth, the full truth and nothing but the truth so help you god . I do. Be seated. Before we move to your statement, i would like to ask that the answer five questions the standard for the committee that we posed to each nominee that appears before us that just require a simple yes or no answer for the record. Do you agree to appear before the committee and at other venues when invited . If confirmed to agree to send officials from her office to appear before the committee and designated staff . Yes. Do you agree to provide the documents or any other material requested by the committee in order for us to carry out the oversight and legislative response of these quick yes. Will you ensure that your office and staff provide such materials to the committee when requested quick yes. Do you agree to inform and bring to the fullest extent possible all members of the committee of intelligence out of activities and covert action rather than only the chair and vice chair man when appropriate . Yes, where appropriate. I want to thank you very much and we will now proceed to the Opening Statement. You are recognized. I have remarks thanking saxby, he has to leave and i want to jump ahead of what im going to say in my written remarks to you just to thank him. A great friend and someone i had the pleasure of serving under this committee. He has left his mark in many ways including friendship among his wife and between my wife and me and i just want to thank him for being willing to come today to make remarks on my behalf. Members of the committee, i am honored to appear that for you as the nominee for the position of director of national directol intelligence. It is a great privilege to have served on the Senate Select committee on intelligence and to see up close the great work done by all the members of the staff and their supporters. I will admit however the view is different down here than from up there. I recall many days sitting up there looking to whoever was down here and say im glad i knocked down there. Well, here i am a grade i would like to begin by thanking President Trump for nominating me for the position. Im humbled by his confidence in me and i will work tirelessly to believe what i believe and most believe is the finest intelligence enterprise in the world. I would like to also thank the Vice President , my indiana colleague and someone im honored to cali amhonored to cas support. I deeply appreciate his faith in me. Id also like to acknowledge the work of the previous gmi. Christie 69 jim clapper and stephanie sullivan. The stewardship of the community over the past years has been commendable and the guidance and helping me to prepare for the position has been most helpful. Ththey left in place and experience in the team that has beebut hasbeen instrumental in a smooth transition for the odni. And also i want to recognize my fellow hoosiers who elected me several times in the house of representatives and to the senate in the past year. Ive always done my best to represent them and i i am honod by the confidence that theyve put in place time and time again and while i will always be a hoosier at heart if confirmed as the next director o director ofl intelligence, i will represent the dedicated men and women of the office of the director of National Intelligence and the broad Intelligence Community to the best of my ability. Finally, saving the best for last, i would like to thank my wife, marcia, my children were here today. Together my children have produced according to our observation, ten almost perfect grandchildren. My career in Public Service is a direct reflection of my families support and love and without their encouragement i wouldnt be sitting today. Its been a long road of Public Service thats brought me here today. After 34 years of service in the house and senate and as ambassador to germany, i was ready to make a transition and planned to mov move onto on to t chapter of my lifelong journey back home again to indiana. But as ive learned over those 34 years, life doesnt always work out the way you think it is going to work out. Ive been called upon to consider the positio position mt console to play most important advisor my wife marcia as i examined the responsibilities of such a significant office. As a former teacher and family therapist, she understands me probably better than anybody, and the importance of Public Service. She is the rock that provides stability an and counsel, shoulr to shoulder with me in every aspect of my life. While im no longe i am no longg from Public Service but i am retiring as i sit here today is my policy had. A hat i wear proudly as they represent the views of my constituents, offer policy proposals, judgments and cast votes in the committee and on the floor. It will be replaced but if confirmed they will put on a new one. Just as the government transitions to a new leadership i also hope to transition to the role of principal intelligence adviser to the president and all the duties that come with it. In this role wil it will be my responsibility to present the president senior policymakers throughout the administration that views a congres the congree most objective, nonpolitical and timely intelligence as you consider policies in the future for the greatest nation. The president and i have personally discussed my potential role as his principal intelligence advisor, and we both recognized this position is frequently the bearer of imprisoned to be too unpleasant news. If confirmed, my responsibility to provide him the most accurate and objective political intelligence possible. In my various conversations with many of you prior to this hearing i was asked about how i see the larger role. Those that know me, and saxby reference time and avid sports fan and evermore in this past year as i celebrated the seemingly impossible accomplishment of the chicago cubs after 108 years of effort winning the world series. Allow me to compare how i see my role using not a baseball analogy that if but if a tall. On a football tea team but plays are guided by a variety of coaches to see them standing along the sidelines and wonder how many there are. One time i counted and thought there were 17 and thought that meant something relative to the number of agencies we work after. There is a coach for offense, defense, special teams, the offense is whoffense of mine goe line to the quarterback and on and on it goes. But every team has a head coach and that leader walks to sidelines and though not dictating to the assistant coach out to do their specific job pulls each of specialists together to form a seamless and focused team. I see the role of the director as a analogous to the head coach role for the Intelligence Community integrating and leveraging all the expertise of the committee. We have immense talent rather than the agencies across the icy. Each one contributes unique capabilities of expertise necessary for a team to be as a whole successful. Unique access of our human intelligence sources and the detailed the Detailed Analysis from the Central Intelligence agency, the important input from defense Defense Intelligence agents the signals expertise of the National Security entity which i believe is second to none in the geospatial demonstrated by the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency, the acquisition proficiency of our satellite specialists and the National Reconnaissance office, a force multiplier in intelligence elements of the Armed Services to domestic counterterrorism and counterintelligence work done by the federal bureau of investigation and the specialized fields of the icy elements resonant with the departments of state treasury just as Homeland Security andcua energy. Like a head coach, i see it as my job, to pull all of these team members together under the same game plan to produce the best coordinated and best integrated intelligence we can find, to make the whole greater than the sum of the parts and given the complicated threat environment that we face today in this country and around the world now more than ever the icu must work as a team. N the threats that we face today are more challenging dynamic ane geographically used than ever before. Allow me to address in no particular order what i see as some of the most challengingas issues we currently face and i could spend a lot of time on this so i will abbreviate and talk about just a few. Clearly the rising cyber threat must be highlighted. Cyberspace is both a resource and a liability to increasingly connected world that creates tremendous opportunities but also many vulnerabilities. Not unrelated i would highlight the threat of radical islamicchi terrorism which continues to be a significant threat to the United States and its allies abroad. Theyre spreading their message of fear and hate through cyberspace mobilizing to use it in their selfdescribed chinas activism including its disputed territory claims of east and South China Sea is troubling and will be a longterm challenge for the United States. Russias assertiveness in Global Affairs is something i look upon with grave concern which we need to address with eyes wide open and a healthy degree of skepticism. And north Koreas Nuclear ambitions and quite frankly provocations or something in the Intelligence Community needs too be laser focused on. The list continues with a diverse set of challenges including those of iran, syria afghanistan and other hotspots around the world. In order to address these threats i will bring my years o experience that i will execute in a plan to bring togetherbr teams of people toward a common goal. As the ambassador to germanymbaa from 2,122,005 i oversaw the activities of more than a dozen federal agencies in the american embassy. I trust that my experience in coordinating and integrating that many different departments and agencies overseeing the activities leveraging their strength and bringing them together under a single strategy will serve them well as dni. As a member of congress in both the house and senate ive always had a keen interest as you know ensuring that we are responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars. In evaluating federal programs i always made a point to askin questions about what works and what doesnt and why. I also believe it was important to assess how we establish priorities. We must ask ourselves in a time of tight budgets what programsog are truly essential . Which may no longer the necessary or partly necessary or prior to . Out of these programs support her overall goal for strategy and is it lucrative of another effort . Are will be looking to ask the icu these and many moree questions if confirmed as dni. In the vein of deficiency there is much discussion about the t role of the dni in the office of dni. Of but me share with you what ive learned in preparation for this opportunity. Over the past 12 years since its inception the odni has been passed with a variety of responsibilities, many in statute in executive orders and president ial memorandums along with recommendations coming from the 9 11 commission. The people supporting these directives are hardworking folks from all across the ic. No significant portion is on from other ic agencies. Also as you know in tct nctc created by the law enacted in 2005 its counted and that number we have which is less than 2000 by the way less than a third the number of band membert from the Armed Services. So that may put it in some perspective. Odni was established to counter the 9 11 stove piping by agencies to ensure collaboratiob and integration across the intelligence elements. People who are supporting these directives are hardworking folks from all across the ic. Odni brings together talent from across the community to integrate intelligence that does its best to connect the dots. Not just specific dots from specific agencies but keepingst with my earlier idea that you cant play a complete game with just a star quarterback and wide receiver. Maybe if you are the new york patriots you can pull that off once in a while but i dont think that happens very often. You need a strong offensive linl and agile team and a talented placekicker along with manyea other players to be the best inw the business. Not every player on a Football Team is going to be the mvp that they are team nonetheless and everyone on the field plays a critical role. Leave the ic succeed, we succeed as a team. If we come up short we fail as a team and we used that experience to address it so it doesnt happen again. As i looked at the many requirements of the office and reflected in various laws orders of recommendations i have beenn impressed by the offices responsiveness to the many taskt and the reasonable resources that they have. Recent commentary on the size of the odni does not mesh with what ive seen firsthand and i believe it does a disservice to this committee and your efforts to keep the size of odni and check. To meet your obligations and my obligation. That said as i discussed earlier believe every Government Agency must constantly review its operations and ill be taking a look at not only the office of the odni but the entire i see ic and try to see how we can do things more efficiently and effectively. We dont have a choice but much has been made public about the role of our intelligence enterprise and how it will fare in the future. Im encouraged by what i see. With the Leadership Team inuragd place and the ic ic agency had no less committed to continuous the worldclass intelligence enterprise it is today. Before going to questions let me just share with you the earlyrp goals that if confirmed i will share with the ic. I intend to push the ic to be the best he can and not accept the status quo when it comes to the challenges facing our nation i intend to ask the ic to be innovative in its approach to hard problems and the solutions to solve it. Ol i intend to be a champion for the hardworking men and women of the ic to be there for theme the way they were here for all of us. Every day the men and women of the ic are working tirelessly on the frontlines, often in then in shadows oftentimes and very dangerous situations with a common goal of keeping america safe and secure. I also intend to work with all of you as a former member of the committee to ensure you that the ic ic is the support it needs to attack whatever the opposing teams bring her way and to ensure the congress in this committee have access to information you need to conduct your oversight responsibilities. I am honored by the opportunity to be here today and i thank you for your consideration of my nomination and with that i look forward to answering questions. To dan, thank you very much. Let me say to members i will recognize members in order of seniority for fiveminute rounds for those that need it we will have a followup around just for members timing will go from the open of the hearing to a closed hearing or whatever period that might take and i will be in our normal hearing room. With that let me recognize myself for five minutes. Dan, hugh and marcia had it gave you in retirement. She was excited and you are actually really excited, 34 years. Now you have agreed to do a job that many have called thankless. Why . I have been asked that question many times at each step of the journey. The response has always come down to a sense of duty. One asked to serve your country whether in uniform, we chidedhe for two years or whether or as in the congress or as ambassado and running for the senate began , after quite a hiatus and then to say yes to this job, i was reminded. I dreamt and believe that life was a duty and i think thats what i was looking to. I awoke and found that life is a duty so i believe when asked by your country to serve your country again the answer needed to be yes. I know you understand well from your experience on the committee how valuable raw intelligence can be to the oversight process. T if asked by the committee will you provide raw intelligence behind the Intelligence Committees hes finished producy i consider that a responsibility of the ic to provide the committee owed to do oversight properly. I noticed in your statement that you highlighted and i quote acquisition proficiency of our satellite specialist of the National Reconnaissance office. Im sure you probably agree however that the Requirements Development process for our satellite is in need of significant reform. We work with the committee to streamline that process totowi ensure that we can more quicklya to design build and launch base . Agility is critical in this time of rapid technological change. We have seen renovations that have the capacity to launch instruments into space. I was shocked the other day to read the nation of india on one rocket launches deposited morete than 100 satellites into space today may be small in size with different functions but one rocket think it was 111. Annot ao we cannot afford to be behind the curve in terms of development in the offensive and defensive capacities. Space. In streamlining Data Acquisition process its not something that should be done. Its of a most sensitivity that has to be done. There has been much discussion about the role of the Central Intelligence agency played in interrogation of terror suspects as part of the odni program. Are those detention facilities have all been close. President obama efficiently and at the program seven years ago. Think the debate space on the subject has been confused and uncertain the law is now very clear. Do you agree that it would require a change in the law for the cia or any Government Agency lawfully employ any interrogation techniques beyond those in the Army Field Manual . I absolutely completely support that. That is the law. I might note for the committee and i will bring it up if you dont, when that vote of the ndaa came up. N. Ic community that looks forward in innovation as an opportunity as many on this committee and include i turn to the vice chairman. Thank you mr. Chairman and i echo what the chairman has said about satellites and our overhead capacity. You were part of many debates but we have to make changes in that field and i think much more future oriented in recognizing as you pointed out other nations moving in this area and the tremendous opportunities within the commercial space so i appreciate your answer on that. As i mentioned in my Opening Statement i want to get you back on the record on a couple of items that i think are terribly important. Im going to start again with an issue of great importance to me and i believe this committee and that is our current investigation into russian hacking attempts. Do you promise to fully and completely cooperate with the committees investigation of the russia Election Hacking including by turning over all requested ic cables intelligence products and auto materials to the committee as promptly as possible . I think its a responsibility to provide you access to all that you mention. And do you plan to continue any investigations of the ic carrying out or may carry out regarding russias active measures especially as they refer to interference in elections in our country and for that matter countries around the world . I think this is something that needs to be and investigated and addressed. I have not seen the classified information that my colleagues may or may not know. The day we go sine die related to the senate you lose your classification. You have to start over a zero. It took much longer than we had anticipated so i just received it last thursday. Back in indiana last week helping close things down there to return here and so i have not had the opportunity to be briefed on what the classified version of that investigation has come up with, so in answer to your question, yes i think this is an issue. Russia has a long history of propaganda and trying to influence various nations cultures and elections and so forth. Happening in europe now as we spake but they believe they have stepped up their game and they are using cyber and sophisticated efforts that they didnt have the foresight and gets a very key issue that we understand fully what has happened and how it has happened and have a full report of that and certainly make sure the ic produces the intelligence access that you need to do your job. I appreciate it sir. Obviously one of the Core Functions of the ic and its odni and you will have to coordinate this and i will get back to the coach in making sure that you speak truth to power. You have a remarkable background that you will be the first dni who was not either career military, career intelligence or a career professional diplomat and again similar to mike pompeo bringing more of a political or a policy advocate, how will you ensure that the Intelligence Community will continue to provide unvarnished assessments of the president and his administration mark artiles afeni politics . Thats our responsibility. Thats my responsibility to make sure the Intelligence Committee knows what my standards are and what we can do what we cannot do. I want to make it very clear to all elements of the Intelligence Community that our job is to do our job and our job is not to formulate policy and our job is not to influence policy in any way for political reasons. Our job is to present as you said the truth to those who make policy decisions about where we go when i will not tolerate, i will not tolerate anything that falls short of that standard. The chairman raised the issue around current law in terms of u. S. Army field map annual interrogation. I would simply point out that every day in one form or another the military deals with some form or another the socalled ticking timebomb scenario and i believe general mattis has appropriately pointed out that he would not stray from the Army Field Manual in the socalled enhanced derogation techniques just dont work. I would hope that you would echo again what you said in the last committee that you would commit to following the law and not try to change that law. I can absolutely say that i have no other obligation except to follow the law on that. I greatly respect john mccain who not only understands this but has been subject to attend general mattis with years and years of experience. I respect both of them and i intend to be available to work with them and talk with them but the law is clear and following what that law is is my primary responsibility and i will adhere to that. Thank you mr. Chairman. Senator risch. Dan i dont really have any questions for you. I know what your decisionmaking is like and you and i have wrestled with these decisions we had to make and i know what your analysis is like. I have absolute confidence. I think it was a great appointment by the president and i thank you and i especially thank marsha for agreeing that you could do this job. We really appreciated in america really appreciates it. Thank you for your willingness to do that. If i could comment im sitting here looking at that empty chair. That is senator rubios chair now. Oh, im sorry. I hope hes not watching on cspan. He will be showing up. Im not going to comment. Again, thank you so much and as you know the remodeling the office next to mine on the fourth floor. Its a mess. Were you able to see the new room on the other end there . No, i wasnt. Thank you. Thank you. Senator wyden. Thank you mr. Chairman and its good to see my former finance Committee Chairman partner. I was a little baffled and all the references of football. The hoosiers are about my game, basketball but we will talk about that another time. In january of 2017 the Intelligence Committee issued a written assessment that Vladimir Putin and the russian government developed a clear preference for president elect trump. Given president putins preference how are you going to actually show our allies with elections coming up that the Intelligence Community will support them against russian efforts and they are influenced . As i said earlier russia has a long history of doing this and have stepped up their game and tactics. As i also said ive seen the classified version of this but i think is publicly known and it knowledge and accepted that russia definitely did try to influence the campaign. To what extent they were successful i dont think we know that following through on that in terms of forming allies in what we have experienced what they are probably going to experience as they have the ability to better understand what the russian efforts are, i think the transparency of what has happened is necessary for the American People so it may make their judgments in the future whether future elections or whatever they understand that there are outside forces trying to influence them in one way or another. It do think this is an issue that ought to be looked at carefully and there needs to be frankly a response. Vice president pence in a security conference, i was not there but read his remarks and said there needs to be consequences for what russia is trying to do. What i hope we will see is that because people are concerned that what happened to us, that you will make intelligence sharing of these countries have priority. I think that is argument of any to be done. I wanted to hear from you but we will move on. You said that if you are confirmed the reauthorization of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act would be your top legislative priority. For years i had members of congress have been asking for an estimate of how many innocent lawabiding americans are getting swept up in this collection . Will you commit to getting this number to the committee and the public before reauthorization . Yes, i do. Im going to do everything i can to work with admiral rogers to get you that number today been told its an extremely complex process for a number of reasons. Without classification i dont know what are all those reasons are. I need to share with admiral watt rogers not just those numbers but all the information they need in which to make a judgment with reauthorization. The Intelligence Committee believes reauthorization is extremely important and its a program that is provided a significant amount of intelligence relative to what Foreign Agents or individuals are trying to do to harm americans. So it has layers of oversight and alternate levels of government has been examined by a Civil Liberties board, the ant supported by the fisa court but this is something you will be going through during this next year and we want to make sure you have all the information you need in order to make whatever adjustments the congress decides to make. So you will commit to making sure we have a number of innocent americans being swept up before reauthorization and declassifying any secret legal interpretation related to fisa as well . Thats something i will have to continue to work with you on. Obviously im going to commit to do everything i can to try to get you that number. I need to find out why its been so long and what are the complications of getting that number but i think its important for the committee. This is the classification. As long as it doesnt, the classification process is in place so that there are sensitive sources and members that could be exposed that may have negative consequences to our Intelligence Agency we obviously have to classify those but those that we can declassify for the needed purpose i think we need to do it. Esther chair metz i could just take a few more seconds. My point is that i appreciate what senator coats is trying to say here. Aa we need that number. We have thought it are years and years. More and more americans are getting swept up in the searches we are trying to legitimately go after targets that are a threat to us but as Telecommunications Systems to come globally integrated we are getting more and more lawabiding americans hooked up. We need the number and we need the classification. Thank you mr. Chairman. Thank you mr. Chairman. Welcome back senator coats. We are delighted to see you. As the author along with former senator Joe Lieberman of the 2004 that created the director of National Intelligence i have a special interest in her nomination. I am delighted that the president has chosen you for this important decision and i believe he could not have made a better choice. Thank you. I want to talk to you about the importance of the dni serving as the law provides as the principle intelligence adviser to the president. I am concerned about reports that the president is changing the composition of the socalled principled committee on the National Security council by adding his chief strategist and downgrading or so it appears, the role of the director of National Intelligence. How will you ensure that you can fulfill the statutory mandate to serve as the president s top intelligence adviser and National SecurityCouncil Meetings if this proposed reorganization goes forward . Thats a question that i have been addressing directly with the president and his staff. I was informed that the drafting of that executive order was not intended to not have the director of National Intelligence is part of the committee. It was drafted before by the president bushs administration before the dni was even stood up so they took language from that never intending not to have dni be part of the Principles Committee. Ive been very assured time and time and time again by two of its advisers that i will come to needed and expected the Principles Committee essential to this process of being in a process to know what is living up to the National Security council relative to the team. I have great confidence in general mcmaster in terms of his putting together a deed that he knows will be the most effective and i think relative to who is added or not added to that team the other is the jurisdiction and as i said i have great confidence that hes going to put that team in place under the president. Thank you. Thats very assuring since i cant imagine having the deputy of dni of the Deputy Committee and not having the dni on the Principles Committee which needs to resolve issues that are of the highest level that the deputy could not resolve. Surely the president should want to have his principle adviser on Intelligence Matters present at those very important meetings. I was ensure that was the intent and the other was a mischaracterization. Thank you. A second issue that i want to raise with you is that President Trump had an individual that runs a private equity firm to lead a broad purview of the Intelligence Agency. As far as i can tell this individual does not have National Security of three and nor does he appear to have experience in intelligence. As you are well aware the president can already receive independent advice from the president s intelligence advisory board, which can provide outside advice regarding a full range of intelligence activity so there has been additional review particularly from an individual that does not appear to have the requisite background appears to be a textbook definition of waste and duplication. In addition, in your statement you talked very eloquently about the responsibility of the dni has two bring the Intelligence Agency together to review to make sure they are working effectively and efficiently. My concern is that an outside review by an individual without experience can result in recommendations that are essentially armchair quarterbacking of the leadership of the Intelligence Committee. Do you view it as your job to review the operations of the Intelligence Committee . I do and i think that is where i stand. Clearly as i said in my Opening Statement every agency needs to constantly review itself particularly at a time when a lot of resources are restrained or anytime whether they are not you want to ensure effective government streamlined to efficiency. But in terms of looking at that and assigning someone to that position if it involves the Intelligence Community i think it shouldnt undermine authority and ive made that very clear. I know mr. Feinberg personally and i think he is a patriot. He wants to serve his country and he brings many talents to that but i do not think that translates into reporting to the white house and not england or the control of the National Security office. Sorry, the dni. I ought to have that down pretty well. So i want to just assure you that thats an issue that ive been engaged in and i have full confidence. Thank you very much and i wish you all the best. Welcome back, dan. I want to go back to some of the ground that senator collins covered and i think most of us agree with your analogy, we are a little concerned that sometimes the owner of the team might rather hear from the offensive coordinator right now. Some of these things with regard to the executive order and with regards to mr. Feinberg and the appointment of the director of cia to the committee, it opens a lot of questions for how you are going to maintain dnis leadership and the instruction that is serve the Leadership Committee so well. We really realize that stovepipes to not help american National Security. I just want to make sure i understand what you said to senator collins. Do i understand that the executive order that came out that seems to remove the dni from the Principles Committee was that if bush executive order that didnt reflect current law . Thats my understanding credit wasnt there of course at the time. That is my understanding. I cannot fully say that is what exactly happened but what has been told to me is the intent was never to not have dni as part of the Principles Committee and he reassured me very quickly that there may be a case where the committee is dealing with something that doesnt involve intelligence. In that sort of situation we want to be reassured. Number one im maria shirt with your position and i think thats very important. I am not reassured in the process these executive orders have gone through what i see as the. Enormous mission. Let me move on to another issue with regard to encryption and we have this conversation a lot when you were here on the committee. Its something you are going to have to deal with, very evolving situation moving forward. As director admiral rogers called encryption the foundation for the future and secretary carter called it absolutely essential with regard to the department offense. He said quote im not a believer in a single technical approach to a complex and public hated problem. I dont think thats realistic. I dont think thats taken technically accurate unquote. For the rate purposes we used to be separated by two wide oceans and felt safe and that we could always be ready for something coming our way. Infractions take a second and someone can hit a key and cause incredible damage to the United States in many, many ways all across the spectrum. So, there are those occasions, i think, when we need to at least think about when we have Legal Authority to address situations where we need to get information, cooperation from the Public Sector would be helpful. I think that conversation has been going on, needs to continue going on. You know the ceos of companies are making devices and guaranteeing buyers encryption worry about their communities, families and attacks on the United States. I am not in a policy position to decide how this happens but i do think that it needs to be an ongoing discussion among policymakers in terms of what legal authorities and in the end we follow the law, whatever it is, regardless of our personal opinions. Thank you, chairman. Well, it is great to have you back and great to have been on this committee with you and know that you have an important and in many ways unique sense of these issues. But also we have watched as a committee and congress, the dni operation grow beyond what i at least initially thought it would be. I am wondering if you have had a chance to think about this. Why do you think that has happened and how much is a result of the congress taxing the dni with specific assignments rather than letting the dni decide which agencies should have that assignment. Give me a sense of how you think that is developed and how your review of other agencies would involve a review of what the director of National Intelligence and the operation under daily management would look like. I have been asking the same question of the ic in regards to this. I have found that statutory requirements, executive orderers, directives, have added functions to the dni that are mandated by the congress or executive branch. Also, i think people dont understand that nctc is a part of the dni. They have about 750 employees at the nctc. I dont hear anybody calling for not having an nctc. But by statute, it was made part of the dni. We have rotations that come, i think about 40 of the people there are rotated through. It is much like what the military is trying to do with their joint exercises and so forth. They want navy to serve with the army at a certain point and the air force at a certain point so they are familiar with the whole and then can perform better service. It is somewhat similar to the whole joint efforts under goldwater and nickels is trying to accomplish. It is a little more complicated. 750 people are out there. Those two factors played a major role in that. Having said that, it doesnt mean we cant take a hard look at how we can streamline, be more effective and particularly taking a number of people here and putting them over there doesnt change the dynamic if the reason they are here with the integration and coordination process and so forth. To finish my remarks it is simply if you are going to integrate information coming from 16 other different agencies you have to have members there from some of those functions that know what is coming from their functions so they can be part of the integration problem solution. Do you think the congress has rightly or wrongly created all these specific signs for the dni as opposed to either letting the dni determine who had the assignment or making an assignment to one of the specific agencies and knowing that the dni would have oversight . That is probably a good question to ask senator collins. I know her and others who put this together had to work through the process of becoming law. I read an interesting book about what that two and half years was like in order to achieve that. Many times we have a vision and have our staff write it up into law and from the starting point to ending point we dont recognize it when it comes back with all the decisions that have been made in order to make adjustments so certain entities have that authority and this authority. There is fog in the air about the exact authorities of the dni and the responsibilities that are left. Clearly an overseer and someone who has defined authorities but not necessarily authorities that simply go into every agency and deal with their operations. I will conclude by saying on this topic, i think nobody is in a better position to work with the relevant committees of congress to try to go back now and take a look at that law, what it was intended to do, whether it really has achieved what it was intended to do and the advice you might have as you have a chance to look at this from both perspectives of what the next dni might be able to work with because of reforms and efficiencies while you have this job. I look forward to being part of the committees activities for the next several years. 12 years on and probably time to take a look at what works, what doesnt, and why and what can we do better. Exactly and i would look that to be one of your major goals. That is one of my major goalsism senator coats, i take issue with your analogy. I can assure you the assistant coaches of the patriots would be astonished that their coach is as passive as you say. You have to be more aggressive. Let me move on to my only concern about your nomination. You are one of the most likable, easy going people i have met. I like travelling and working with you on this committee. I am not sure likability is the quality i want in this position. I want someone who is crusty, mean and tough because you are riding on 17 agencies that will want to be going in Different Directions and reporting to a president who may or may not want to hear what you have to say. Can you assure me that not only are you changing hats when you go into the this job but you are going to hard in terms of your execution, in terms of what i think is the second most important job in the United States government, right now. Well, achieving the level of belichick may be tough. I havent seen any other nfl coaches achieve the level of belichick. The attitude and success. I hear what you are saying and i think the office and times demand it. We are not in a passive situation from a world threat. It has reached the level we cannot afford not to go at this with everything we have. And to put a point on this, the three most serious Foreign Policy mistakes in my life time are the bay of pigs, vietnam, and the invasion of iraq. All oof those were based upon configuring special to meet the policymakers. The pressure of you trying to meet the demands of the policymakers and happened on saturday when allegedly the Trump Administration and the white house put pressure on the department of Homeland Security intelligence and analysis to come up with a justification for the travel ban rather than asking what is the story on people from these countries they gave them the answer and said give us the evidence. Have you heard about this incident that was just reported this past weekend . I read that in public media, yes. Does that concern you . As i said in the beginning and i will say frequently to the president and the executive branch, you need to fully understand my role. My role is to provide you with policy and not formulate policy. I am not a spokesperson for political decisions that are made. Yes, i have made this year and continue to make this clear. I cannot go outside the bounds of my authorities and i believe the authorities allow me to do nothing less than what i said. Quick yes or no question. Do you need this job . No, i dont need this job. One of the benefits of being in your generation as i look at the panel here that is the right answer. You and i go back all the way to the bay of pigs and vietnam. If we havent learned anything from these incidents, then shame on us. That is right. I want you to remember because there is going to be a moment when you have to say i dont need this job because i am being asked to do something that i should not do. I am not predicting that will happen. But it could happen. This isnt about that president or any other president but happed as we pointed out. A couple questions on the National Security. I dont know where the language came from but the language says where instances you are invited where instances pertaining to the dnis responsibility and expertise is being discussed. I am worried you said if it is problem we will fix it. It should be fixed now. You should not be welcomed at the meeting rather you should be part of the meetings. I would urge you to talk to the white house about the executive order issued about correcting that fault and the second fault was to put steve bannon to the National Security council. I understand that president bush prohibited karl rove from even going to National SecurityCouncil Meetings let alone being on it. Admiral mullein says this is politicizing National Security from the beginning and i think that is a very bad practice. Thank you, senator. I will take that message back to the president. Thank you. It is great to see you, dan. Just to senator kings concerns i sat by him and found him to be unpleasant on many instances. Of course, everyone who knows me knows that is new true. But we are fortunate and grateful you are willing to continue to serve our country. The first topic is this unusual situation regarding counter intelligence. It is involving illegally accessed information, media control and spot nick and the like. There is also an element of propaganda involved in politics but the synergy between the propaganda and intelligence for influence, directing elections and policy making in Foreign Countries has reached a level in many places in europe and i believe even in the United States that is unique. You may have touched on this earlier but this is a challenge that is perhaps a bit different from what we have been dealing with in the Intelligence Community over the last decade and certainly since post9 11. That is not just that Foreign Governments have intelligence agencies that target us but that in fact they strategically use information potentially to have an influence over our policy makers and policy making and potentially our elections. So that new dynamic how do you view the multiple different agencies that are sinner jiezing that. J did mention they have upped the games of those who want to use these techniques and the digitization of the world and links through the world wide internet have been marvelous advances for mankind but have extreme vulnerabilities and can be taken advantage of. I think we need to educate the public to the fact that these types of things are happening so that in their factoring in terms of their decisions relative to government and governments functions and elections and so forth is not believing everything you hear and read. There are these efforts out there to undermine who we are as a country, undermine some of our values, cause us to lose confidence in our governments ability to protect our privacy, etc. So i do think that requires much more agility, much better means of not only intercepting these but putting not only defenses in place but offenses in response so that those that are doing this there is a consequence to what they are doing. And i would just add that given the fact that this kind of touches upon the Intelligence Community so heavily there is always a tension between allowing the American Public and our allies to understand what is happening and yet allowing Public Community to continue to work in ways that do not divulge more than necessary. That tension is always there and an important part of the element we should take into account moving forward. I think in many ways it is one of the greatest defenses to interfere with Political Forces would be to allow the American People to be aware as much as possible of what that entails so they understand the source behind the process. I think it will be a good challenge for the entire Intelligence Community and you will have a key role to play. The second issue i want to talk about is our detention policy. I am trubld by the direction it is taken. We know we have seen in open source reporting that a number of former gtmo detainees went on to fight against us. What is your view of our detention policy at the end of the last administration and do you have views on what our detention policy should be in the new administration . I have had the opportunity to travel and senator feinstein and these questions have been asked of intelligence agencies in terms of what has happened to those that have been released from guantanamo bay. Are they running a starbucks in yemen . Or rejoined the fight . I have been supporting of the detention which i think is done in a lawful way. And in a humane way but simply sending everybody back home i dont think is the solution to the problem. I think im out of time. But i believe the last starbucks in yemen closed last week. On a serious matter, robert levinson, former fbi agent disappeared from iran in 2007 and he is believed widely to be held by elements of the iranian government. Him and his family are from florida. I would ask you in your role you pledge do to everything to help locate bob and bring him home. Yes, in my closing months in the senate i was also advised of someone else who was put in a similar situation. This one in turkey. Our office had been working to try to determine what the basis of this was and to get him released. I am well aware of the situation from a more personal basis in terms of our needing to address these issues. Senator mansion. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, again. Great serving with you, dan, and great to have you back. With that being said, there is tough questions and a lot of concern on what a difficult time it is. I am new to this committee and learning as quickly as i can. But i think people are depending on us. I know senator king and myself and senator harris and i being members on his side of the aisle are trying fto get up to speed. I think the question was asked to you about our Ranking Member and would you be able it turn over the information and get access. Do you have the authority to get what we are considering slow role . Do you have the authority to make sure we have access whether it would be anyone in the 17 agencies that we need to conduct the full research . I hope i said more than intent. That is my authority and obligati obligation. Timely is part of the equation. It needs to be gave n to you completely, timely, unveri ti. I have no intention of holding banglade anything back. When i look back at 2004, why do you think we needed that dni to be formed . Have you evaluated that . I have done discussions with members of those from the process from the beginning. I served with senator long beach collins and liberman. What was happening was the socalled hype of not sharing information with other each like they should. There was no way to integrate. Some was dismissed. We have more faith in this agency than that agency. I view this as building and maki making a puzzle. You want the input from those 17 be put in a right place and want it to all come together. Will there be descent views in there . Yes. Or different views about the confidence level of what the intelligence is and you need to know that. What the committee needs to know and what the president and customers and the executive branch need to know is that this integrated intelligence is provided to you by all the 17 agencies pulling together all the pieces of the puzzle. Do you think the 17 agencies believe you have the authority or the dni has that authority to remove that director . Or take extremely strongly by the president to be removed . Taken to the president , these are appointed positions so what i am saying is do they look at the dni as having that authority to really do that . Well, there is collaboration authority and there is other authorities. We had a discussion with that a little bit earlier about the initial views of those who were putting it together for various reasons were modified as it moved through the legislative process with the executive branch coming in and making recommendations. Do you think an acquisition of dni, with all the additional 24 news cycle and social media and everything going on today on the internet, socalled fake news if you will, do you think the dni has a responsibility to speak up and say this is hogwash . We have a role to provide intelligence making decisions relative to policy and he can make analysis to provide to you and our policymakers but it was mentioned earlier truth to power. Our job is to provide the truth. Power goes to those people who are in a position to make those determinations, make policy, make corrections, make laws, etc. That is what we bring to you. Thought nat we are not spok spokeperson. You dont believe the socalled New York Times article which side you should be on that there should be any clarity coming from the dni . We provide that information but i dont envision myself going on cnn and saying here is what we have done every night. My vision is providing that information to the policymakers to let them make that decision. Many leaders identified, china, iran, isis and others as a top security threat. Have you chosen the top threat according to your beliefs . I mentioned earlier on that cyber has moved to the top in terms of it affecting everything we do in this country in terms of peoples safety, financial, commercial, national defense, intellectual property. On and on you could go. One most capable you are concerned about . You know, i would like to take that to the closed session. I have strong thoughts about that but i think that could potentially turn into something we need to do in closed. Thank you. That is fair. Thank you for your continued service and willingness to serve. It is great to see you again. I am sure you enjoy being on that side of the deck because you cannot get up and move or take a quick phone call. You are stuck right there. It really is great to see you. I do want to follow up on a conversation that senator king had with you. I would say i have the same line of questioning for you to close the loop on. You are one of the nicest people i have ever met. That is to your credit to your faith, family and people you served for a long time. But i really want to dni to be tough when it requires to be tough, and to be clear when it is time to be clear, because the policymakers around you need clarity, need straightforward fact and the facts they know they can trust and we will deal with nice in the hallway when we grab a bottle of water together and get a chance to chitchat. But i need to hear clarification from you that when the moment comes and it is crunch time you can be as tough as you need to be. James, senator i am sorry. You said such nice things about me it tells to our friendship. Senator, i absolutely understand that this role demands someone who can stand up to the pressures that will be placed upon him. Political pressures, and there needs to be a director who can assert that authority. I have been blessed to have scott who backs me up with good, wise, council. But i recognize the need for that given that the situation we are facing world wide in terms of these threats. We dont have time just to be the nice guy. We have to go after it. Yup, i have often said to people in my state who challenge me i can say no with a smile but still be able to stand by and i know you can as well. That will be an area you are pushed on but i would say to you that some of the pressure wont just be from the policymakers. There is a tendency with all of us in the political world and the Intelligence Community to somewhat chase the priorities of the headlines with the latest news story and that is the ic priori priority. For many in the ic community, they saw the cyber issue a long time ago. The media is only recently catching up. That we stay on focus on the threats we face all the time, and that when the issues come up were on top of them. Let me ask you a strange question for us. One we get a chance to visit together, will we still be able to talk about the coats waste of the week . Will you still be focused in on i found an area we need to resolve. You know as well as all of us do on the dias that at times with the administration when theres somebody that need to the be fixed the practitioners in the agency see the problem. We need help in the overnight that when you see something, in any of the 17 entities or your own office, can you help us be able to see the things as well to know what to fix legislatively . Yes, i intend to do that. I went with some passion every tweak the senate floor 55 times to address the west certified waste of the week, and i have already looked around a little bit and said, maybe that fits a waste of the week category. Lets investigate that. Obviously, have to be confirmed before i can start that process, but im committed to doing that and i want to just reflect basically on what you said about the nark to terror narcoterrorism. We have talked about this personally. Each of us has experienced talking to families two have lost a member of the family because of maybe 17yearold going to a matter and somebody says, here, try this, and they end up in the hospital and many of the them perish its a a scourge that is cutting across the country. We havened indiana. You have it in your state and every member hat is and it is something that cant be ignored or pushed aside. It is undermining the very essence of this country and its affecting families and communities in ways that havent made the headlines as much as they should but has to be a component of this and intelligence plays a role how these things are brought into the country or win our country. Thank you. Senator harris. I enjoyed our time together and thank you for that. I did also. I know that many of my colleagues have raised the issue of the restructuring of the National Security council. Id like to talk about that little bit more because im sure you agree its critically important related to what we needs to accomplish in terms of imagine security. The president s executive order was issued on january 28th january 28th which basically put the director of National Intelligence in a place where he or you, if confirmed, would not be included necessarily in the National Security council meet examination the Principles Committee meeting. If confirmed as the directoff of National Intelligence do you leave its critically important that you have a permanent role in those meetings . Yes. Have you requested of the president or any member of his administration that executive order be modified . We have sent them information as to how to modify it. It has not been addressed yet but i have been reassured over and over and over by the president and his staff that absolutely thats what theyre intent was and thats they expect me to be there. Have they given you a date when it will be modified. They have the not. Before your confirmation . They have not given me a date. Dont know of a particular date. Now, my understanding is that the cia director was the executive order was modified on january 30th. Correct. And it was modified to include the cia director. Is that create . Thats right. You mentioned earlier that the executive order was basically something from the bush era that has been re resuscitated thats has been modified. You agreed to that, is that correct . I think it was the 30th. I need to its been modified since is was issued under this administration. No it has not. When was the cia director added to it. That was part of the original no, is wasnt. Okay. It was a press conference statement. The action that was taken. Okay. Have a copy of that here and it was added back to the National Security council. So the point is, that this bush era document has been modified since it was issued to include the cia director but not put back in ndi. I may be wrong it was a bush era you indicated that is we the administration told you. My understanding the lange was taken from a similar executive order issued under the bush administration. And that order was issued before there was the position of dni. And i have been told verbally that the intent was not to leave the dni position off. Just that apparently they were drafting the language, didnt realize the language didnt include the dia because there was no dia that point. The bottom line is i have full 100 confidence that i will be part of the principals committee, yes, the my concern is not about your qualifieses mitchell concern is about what environment youre walking into. In particular whether if confirmed you will actually have a seat in that body, and if the administration is telling you that it was some document that was issued in time gone by, we know that it has since been modified to include the cia. Did not include the joint chiefs. And it has not replaced the position for which you are here testifying. So, my concern is that there has been no indication or assurance given that you will, if confirmed, actually be a member of the that body and id like to know from you if you that does not happen, are you prepared to still assume the responsibilities without the authority that you would have if you were a member of that body . Im fully prepared to assume the responsibilities. Even if the executive order is not modified . Yes, i am ive been assured that i have the authority to be a member of that committee and be at that committee in every one of it meetings. Wouldnt you agree the assurance would be sealed if the executive order is modified to indicate that the position that you now seek is actually entitled to be a part of all meetings that relate to National Security . Otherwise as ive indicated before, im going to take that message to the administration that the question was raises here. Im comfortable with it because i trust them and believe what they have told me and i intend to do this. But i would be concerned, sir i would like to get back you definite this. This came from the bush era and there have been modificationed since. Would be concerned but i appreciate your candor. Senator copp. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And thank you, dan forks are answering the call of service. Thank you. Standing beside the the answer to call of service. Good to see you back here and i congratulate you on your nomination. We have spoken some about the unique challenges and opportunities of trying to integrate all 17 agencies wasnt the Intelligent Community youll face as the dni. Youre very familiar with them, familiar with the kind of intelligence products they each produce and the priority they each have. Have you any thoughts what actions can be taken in the very short run to mike that process work more efficiently and to produce coherent picture for policymakers what is happening in the world, overseas in n your role as dn . I. Obviously theres a lot to learn. I want to get acquainted with the various leaders of the agencies. But as i have said before, given the nature of the threats we face, we need to act sooner rather than later. I have always believed that get egg right people in place can best execute the doctrine in temps of achieving your goals, and so we will quickly, if confirmed, move into that mode of filling that up. I did recognize earlier on that previously leaders of the odn and i the smooth transition that they have arranged by ensuring theres continuity during this gap period, the period of time. But this is one of the this rises to an early responsibility. One of the original purposes of the odni was to take the disseparate disparate times of intelligence checked, bev it human intelligence, bank records, satellite imagery, email and phone intercepts, passenger manifests and sip that size them together to synthesize them together to create a coherent picture. Thats an important function. One thing ive heard on occasion from my visits to the various agencies and talking with their frontine personnel the dni over time has imposed bureaucratic mandates on the agencys recording requirements, hr requirements and so forth, that get their analysts out of the business of core collection and an nicing and spending too much time focused on philadelphiaing the bureaucratic mandates. Have you seen that in your preparation and do you have any thoughts how you might focus the dni on that original mission and keep the constituent agency focused. I have not had enough experience to evaluate that. I will take that as a issue to address, but i without the confirmation i havent had the opportunity to engage with the other 16 agencies, except to begin to formulate some relationships with a few of them, starting with the director of Central Intelligence. We have had a number of occasions to talk to each other and share what we think the concerns are and what we think we need to do. Think that relationship is a very important relationship, maybe the first important relationship so were corking to establish that. Thank you. Finally you mentioned in the Rob Silverman commission, commission to recommend ways toen sure the Intelligence Community is organized, equipped, trained and resourced; what kind of lessons if any would you take a. From the report of Rob Silverman commission and how applicable are those today, recognizing were about a decade on . Well, not all of those recommendations were implemented. I think its worth going back in and looking the original intent and then the reports from Rob Silverman and they made a number of recommendationsed which were constructive, but i just think after 12 years or so, the agency clearly has evolved into what it is today. But taking a look back at where it was intended in the first place to go, and as i said this was a compromise piece of legislation like most legislation, and it was interesting that in the articles i was reading, they talked to the former directors, a total of it people in a position to make an assessment what the authorities of the dni were and there are were eight different answers. That alone is a signal that we ought to perhaps go back and look and see if we want too make some adjustments to the law. That would have to be done in conjunction with congress, of course, but at some point i think maybe sooner rather than later that would be something we ought to look at. Thank you, and congratulations again. Thank you. Senator cornyn. Senator coats, congratulations, and thank you for answering the call of duty to and to your wife, marsha, whose always supported you in your publication Public Service. So thank you for that. I want to ask about two subjects, one basically to ask for your help as in you new job, on confirmed. Ive been concerned that the Foreign Agent registration act passed in 1938 needed to be updated, and, for example, its we experienced during the time that Congress Passed a bill called the justice against sponsors of terrorism act, that once congress voted unanimously to pass that, the president vetoed it. Congress overrode his veto that a Foreign Government spent untold amount of money to try to lobby the United States congress, and it troubled me because im not sure many people knew what the source of the funds or the source of the lobbying effort was, and it just strike mess as really important, particularfully right of the russian activities going to be the subject of investigation here that we have looked at the Foreign Agent registration act to see if it need to be updated so that congress and the public can see where money is coming from by Foreign Countries, perhaps hiring lobbyists on k street the try continue trying continue nuisance domestic regs. I would like to have your help and your offices help on that. You have that. More transparency needs to be offer to the public relative to what this and is isnt. Absolutely. I. I want to go back to a comment made by one of our colleagues, my friend from oregon, who has asked you to and others to produce the numbers of innocent americans swept up in intelligence gathering operations, and i just want you to talk, if you will, briefly, about all the various minimum minimization pretty our toads suppress incident cal or inadvertent communications. Its illegal to target american citizens. Thats right. What wear talking about is targeting foreign intelligence persons overseas. 702 is specifically designed for that purpose. By the way, i was the direct the director of the fbi referred to 702 as the crown jewels of the Intelligence Community. Would you agree with that . I would in the Intelligence Community also sees it that way. The entire community. So, we all saw what happened during the course of the debate over the u. S. A. Freedom act which i voted for, but im concerned that we not let the debate on the reauthorization of section 702 get caught up in that same sort of hysteria where some people were worried that their own government was spying on them when that decidedly was untrue, but thats history. Want to make sure given the importance of 702 the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to our Intelligence Community that we make sure we do everything possible, first to educate everyone so they understand what is authorized and what is not authorized, and then to work with the congress to come up with an orderly way to make sure that these crown jewels of the Intelligence Community, this section 702 is authorized. I want people to understand that people arent targeted, even Foreign Agented overseas, without court approval. And there is judicial review from time to time. There is oversight and review within the executive branch and heaven knows theres a lot of oversight here in the congress over this. As well as in the various intelligence agencies themselves. Theres layers of protection to make sure that no american has to worry about their own government spying on them. In fact every conceivable effort is being made to prevent that and to protect the privacy rights of americans which we all agree is important. So, i would just ask for your continued help, obviously you know a lot about the topic but given this particular importance on the reauthorization of sex 702, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that we Work Together early to try to educate people to try to better inform everybody involved so that they can be reassured that the proper balance between privacy rights, which we all agree are important, but National Security, exactly the right balance is struck. Senator, couldnt agree with you more. My colleagues have heard me talk on when i was a member of the committee about finding the balance. I think from one end of the spectrum to the other end of the spectrum we all are on the same page that we cherish our private right inside the country that are constitutionally provided to us. Want to do everything we took make sure the private rights are secure and we also know that the constitution requires us to provide for the common defense, and we are under attack from a number of sources now, that whether its through cyber or any of a number of other ways, the United States is vulnerable to attack and they want us to provide to do everything we can to keep them safe. So finding that balance so that we dont take away private rights and at the same time use the necessary tools to determine what the bad guys are trying to do, we thats important that we find that balance point so we can accomplish both of those. 702 is designed to go after foreign bad guys. Its lawful collection of in that process, theres some incidental, what is called incidental names of americans, potential names of american some bad guy might have on his laptop, the names of 40 americans. And so if he is targeted for something, all of a sudden 40 americans we put a process in place in devising this law that theres a minimization of this and i wont go into the details because i cant explain them as well as others can but its a process that understands that were not targeting these people. But incidentaliely came up because the were on this guys email. Or on his phone list. The level of oversight here is all three branches of government, and its significant to try to secure those privacies. Theres a query practice and that is but all these are authorized, all these are under court review, and oversight review, and so this is such a critical tool. I think it deserves full transparency to the level that we can while still protecting sources and classified information and methods and classified information. We need to ensure that the public is not led into a situation where they think theyre in deference from my colleague from oregon the bad guy in syria or wherever is talking to someone in the United States, we kind of want to know what think what theyre talking about there are processes that protect rights and thats procedures to go to court if there is to go to court. Content needs to be secure and the court has to issue a warrant. All of that. I worried when i went back home on the issue of bulk collection and metadata. Now, that has been resolved. 215 of the patriot act has been involved. We dont do that anymore. But i was constantly asked by people back at home, what about this mega data . I said no, its not mega tata. Its metadata. No. No, theyre its mega data and theyre listening to all of my called. I asked Keith Alexander who is head of the nsa. He said if we were listening to everybodys calls we would have to hire 330 Million People to work 24 hours a day. Were just trying to sort out the bad guys from the good guys. Thats discussion we dont have to done. Its during its the law. We are following the law, we have new system now and the policymakers to make any adjustments to that but the 702 is about what foreign or bad people are trying to do to americans that i think Intelligence Community feels very strongly about it. Its your decision. We need to provide you with the information that you need in order to make decisions as to how to go forward with this program. Im sorry i get to into a sermon mode there. A little over the top. Wide your time. Your wife was givingous this. That wouldnt be the first time, richard. Senator widen has asked for one additional question. Other members who seek able deads in. I think we do need to clarify this 702 issue because it is critical in, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Lets stipulate that and i every member of the senate wants to go every the foreign threats or as you correctly call them, foreign bad guys. No question about that. What has happened because communications have gotten so sophisticated and globally integrate. An indeterminate number of innocent americans have their communication being collected under section 702, and the government can then conduct searches for their communications without a court order or even a particular suspicion. Now, to just step back from our twopart question. I asked you if you would get the public the number of how many innocent lawabiding americans are being swept under fisa 702 collection. You said, yes. And then you went on to say it was hard. So my twopart question is, is the answer still, yes, you will get us the number, and since we have been trying to get this for years and years i mean, literally, from being on the committee will you commit now to getting us a report every 30 days until we get this number . We needed for reauthorization and it get to right there heart, frankly, how do toe do the balance youre talking about. Foreign bad guy inside absolutely. But an indeterminate number of people are being swept up because Global Communications are now so sew fix it indicated. So twopart question. Will you stay with your earlier answer and say you will get us the number of innocent americans who are swept up before reauthorization, that is a yes or no, and before you answered yes. The answer still yes . Senator, i cant answer that with yes or no because i qualified my yes with you, at that time least that was my intent. Let me just explain if qualified it because i said it has been extremely hard to come up with that number for various reasons which i dont fully understand. Said i wanted to talk to the director rodgers and talk to nsa in terms of what this problem here, why cant we, and my we the right definition of the terms of swept up. And the numbers. So, basically i said what hope i said and want to clarify the record for this i wail do my best i will do my bess to work and see if we can get the number bus i need to find out about why we cant get it. It dont think anybody is trial to were hold my second part, will you commit to getting us a response every 30 days until we get this question answered . Because this has gone on literally i say this to my friend has gone on for years and it has been sort of one reason after another and these are lawabiding americans. So will you report to us every 30 days until we get this answered . Thats a yes or no. Well, dont see that as a yes or no either, until i get the answer in terms whether thats even possible, to i can call up admiral rog rodgers answer every throw days and say where are we. Would first like to understand what what the issue is here in terms of getting that act number. I dont want to come up with a number that once again, tells the American People something that nobody has if come up with a number here. We have had years of stalling. This is a legitimate question. Youre a friend, i need to know the answer. I need to know the answers to those questions before we have a vote in here because this is central to your key priority, and is reauthorizing 702 you have in the at, hello, im going after the foreign threats but im not there with re innocent americans. Thank you, mr. Chairman. The chair would ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a letter to the committer, senator warner and myself from the Electronic Privacy Information Center without objection so ordered. Dan, one last question. Just to make it clear, the executive order which was National Security president ial memorandum number 2 has not been amended since it was issued. Complected. Absolutely correct. There was a question that it wasnt clear in my mind exactly how it was answered and i want to make sure we cleared the record. At this time the opening hearing will adjourn and well reconvene in closed hearing upstairs. We will here from oregon senator, ron white, a budget director and other experts on Corporate Tax policy. We will show you highlights from the conservative Political Action conference. Four votes on defense spending this year. K