Transcripts For CSPAN2 CIA Inspector General Confirmation 20171018

[inaudible] i like to call this to the order. Id like to talk about our nominee chris, congratulations on your nomination. I like to start by recognizing the family you brought with you here today understand your wife kimberly is here. As well as your son and eight stefan, aiding in your daughter jillian and her husband james. And of course, your mother joyce, welcome. Our goal is to look at the qualifications and to allow for a thoughtful deliberation. Chris is provided substance written responses to 85 questions by the committee and its members. Members will be able to ask questions and hear from mr. Sharpley in the open session. He earned his ba entered his masters degree from the postgraduate degree school. He received commission for the u. S. Air force where he trained with a Counterintelligence Office for special investigation. Chris continue to serve in the air force and post including is director of security until he retired from the air force in 2002. Following the retirement as a civilian special agent. Since then he worked as a deputy ig for the department of energy and help build the offices at the tarp program and the federal housing authority. In 2010 he received the president ial rank award for service. In 2012 he retired as a federal civilian lawenforcement officer has started his career at the Central Intelligence agency. If you dont mind me saying, i dont think youre very good at retiring. From 2012 into 2015 he served as deputy general of the cia. He then served as both deputy and acting ig of the cia. Chris is independent power Inspector General is critical and efficient management of the intelligent community. I trust you will leave the office with integrity and ensure the officers operate lawfully, ethically, morally. As i mentioned other nominees, i can assure you this committee will continue to faithfully follow its charter and conduct realtime oversight over the intelligence community. Will less difficult and probing questions of you, your staff, i will expect honest, complete and timely responses. I look forward to supporting your nomination. I want to thank you for being here for years of service to your country both in lawenforcement and our military. I look forward to your testimony. I recognize the vicechairman for any Opening Statement. Thank you and welcome. Its good to see again and welcome to family. Congratulations is your nomination to serve. I believe the job is critical to the effective operation of any agency. The committee relies on the Inspector General to ensure the organizations are using taxpayer dollars wisely, conducting their activities within the rules spirit of the law and supporting and protecting whistleblowers. Whistleblowers who report fraud, waste, and abuse. These functions are more important than an organization like the caa which by necessity does not operate in the public. I appreciate your the third nominee to come to us this year. I hope we this position has been vacant since february. A very concerned about the number of changes occurring there. As i mentioned we appreciate the meeting earlier this month. We talked about issues that you will face. I want to reiterate some of our discussion and ask you some of the same questions we had in private. One, we supported protecting whistleblowers. Today we want to make sure all cia employees know their rights and responsibilities as well as the processes for them to report waste, fraud, and abuse. I would like to hear a greater commitment from you on this issue. Your job is to be hard hitting. Define problems, uncover abuses, and recommend fixes. You must guard your independence fiercely. I like you to reaffirm that thats also your role in this important position. As you know the committee completed a report and specifically shared it with the executive branch to ensure such abuses are not reported in the future. We discussed how the office both lost and then found a copy of the report and how you decided to return it to the committee. Today and in public, please explain how came to be lost and why you made a decision to return it to the committee. Finally i want your reassurances that you support the investigation into russian interference into the president ial election. Something that i think we have done good work on. Thank you for your service to our country, thank you for being here today and agreeing to accept an opportunity to continue to serve our country. Thank you. Would you stand and please raise your right hand. To swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help you god . Please be seated. Before we moved to your statement, it is practice of this committee that i ask you five standard question that the committee poses to each nominee who appears before us. A simple yes or no. Do you agree to appear before the committee here or in any other venue when invited . Yes. If confirmed please send officials to appear before the committee and designates staff when invited . Yes. We provide documents or materials requested in order for it to carry out its oversight of legislative responsibilities . Yes. We ensure your office and staff provide such materials to the committee. Yes. Do agree to inform and brief all members of the committee of intelligence activities and covert actions rather than limit that only to the chair and vice chair . Yes. Thank you. Well proceed to your Opening Statement that all recognize members by seniority for fiveminute question times. Thank you chairman. I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to appear today as you consider my nomination to be the Inspector General. Im honored and humbled the President Trump has placed his confidence in me to tackle the challenges of this position. My main at the risk of being redundant i like to speak to my background and experience a qualify me to serve as a cia Inspector General. Grateful to have served our nation over the past 36 years. A journey that began shortly after receiving a commission in the air force in 1981. My training and the skills i required to prepare me for challenging assignments during my ten years of active duty service. And also prepared me for my service of another ten years in the air force reserves. Assignments include a commander and director of security and support highly classified special Access Programs. I retired honorably from the reserves in 2002. Upon transitioning i began a fulltime employment as a civilian special agent at the department of Office Energy and respect in general. I became the deputy general with Program Leadership responsibilities covering the Nuclear Weapons complex. I was privileged to have been asked by two new inspectors general the federal Housing Finance agency to assist in building new offices of Inspector General focuses on detecting fraud to stabilize u. S. Banking, securities and Financial Markets during the economic crisis. In 2010 i received the president ial rank award for my leadership in building programs that identified billions in fraud and supported prosecutions. In 2012 i retired as a civilian special agent lawenforcement officer. Thats when my experience began. I was asked by David Buckley to compete for his position. He informed me that he hoped ill bring the best practices from other leadership roles to be applied. I answered that call on entry back into service in 2012 rice served as the deputy until retirement in january 2015 and where i have served until now. I strongly believe in the cia mission to preempt threats to our nation i believe the mission of the Inspector General is essential. I have installed stand firmly behind the work of the team of auditors, inspectors, investigators and support staff. Ive issued over 100 classified reports ma nearly 350 recommendations to leadership to strengthen key programs and operations. I have strengthen the processes and procedures within the office by incorporating standards and best practices utilized throughout the community. I have endeavored to establish reputation as an independent objective and honest acting Inspector General doesnt hesitate to tackle the issues speaks truth to power. Its my hope as it has been my objective to gain the trust of this committee. If confirmed will continue to keep the Committee Informed and keep them responsive. As i observe world events the mission of the cias never been more important than now. National Security Risks associated with north korea, iran, russia, china require key attention. As the risk increase cia appropriately respond and i believe independent robust and objective oversight becomes vital. Ive observed that classified highrisk missions to not receive the same level of scrutiny and feedback that unclassified activities received. Theres good reason for that. This is why capable Inspector General is needed one whole independent and investigate. Im confident the experiences and skills are required in particular acting as Inspector General have prepared me to fulfill the responsibilities. Thank you for this opportunity to testify before you in the committee. Ill be pleased to answer questions. Thank you. It is my intention to move to Committee Vote early next week for planning purposes i would encourage members if they have additional questions after todays hearing that they be submitted by the close of business tonight. I would remind members that we are in open session. Therefore questions should reflect that fact. The chair recognizes himself or five minutes. Cia Inspector General year responsible for racine a Large Organization in his work must be done in secret. But the work of the igs office can provide a critical point of transparency for employees and for this committee. How do you plan to continue art your efforts to ensure that they are fully aware of the function . Within cia theres an awareness program. People are required to takes training on an annual basis. The procedures and processes for making a complaint are incorporated in the training. We have significant outreach effort that we speak with all incoming employees and give briefings on whistleblower appraisal when that arises. Beyond that, we have an extensive amateur whistleblower Hotline Program the retaliation program. Ive had the opportunity to build to whistleblower Hotline Programs from the ground up. And to make improvements to two others. One energy, and the one at cia. Im proud of the practices we put in place they give officers and contractors access to systems the ability to make a confidential, anonymous, or open complaint at any given time. The processes i put in play and ensure that every complaint received is given a review by the senior staff of the office of Inspector General so that skill sets such as audits, expections are able to look at an issue differently with a different perspective as if they think that particular complaint or concern should be handled. What you see is the biggest challenge . The biggest challenge is one of recruitment and retention. We use systems in place by the cia, the recruiting and on boarding processes to also recruit our folks. In my opinion theres an efficient process of on boarding people at cia. Thats what i feel strongly about and i initiated a review to extent examine. For every person i want to bring on, if i identify an individual who meets a certain requirement i have to give three conditional offers of employment. So, no statistically two out of the three i will lose from the time i give the conditional offer to the time they onboard. For every conditional offer i have to conduct five interviews. To fill ten slots in an organization that receives turnover because were highly trained in the Mission Areas so if i want to fill ten slots, have to offer 30 conditional offers and that i need to do hundred 50 interviews. Thats an onerous process and statistical outlay. Our biggest challenge is on boarding folks. Thus most prominent challenge. Thank you. I want to go back to the discussion we had in the office and following up about protecting whistleblowers. I like you to talk a little bit about what you could do particularly the unique nature of the cia what you could do not only on the hotline also programs in terms of preventing retaliation and specifically answers to written questions you said you try to beef up the programs and you talked about bringing in outside experts help advisee. Could you describe what kind of outside that would be and take us through your commitment to the whistleblower protections and particularly since weve seen increase retaliation and how we can prevent them from Going Forward . Thank you senator. Whistleblowing and the programs that they put in place are essential to the success of any office of Inspector General. Every program i have built need to build it where theres confidence by whistleblowers or those raising concerns about an issue that they feel and are comfortable providing information. If theyre not comfortable providing information they will come to. Then you cant fulfill your mission. Its critical to the success and particularly at cia because of the nature of the mission meaning everything is compartmented and people are doing missions. The first thing i did to improve the Whistleblowing Program at cia is ensure that we had a robust Outreach Program. I described a little bit today about what that program was about. But the main thrust of that outreach is to ensure no matter where a cia officer or contractor with access to your system is located around the world, they can make a confidential, anonymous, or open complaint or sharing of concern with our office and they are guaranteed confidentiality of basic it. You said you look at outside. A very comfortable with the program we have thats effective. But, we know from the work that were in which is independent assessments and evaluation of the effectiveness of programs, even though comfortable with the program i have it would be appropriate and prudent for me to invite others in. Theres other individuals within the ig community that are known to have very solid and large programs. When i refer to this my prehearing questionnaire ive asked my chief of staff to reach out to these individuals and asked for an independent assessment of the programs i put in place, not just the Outreach Program but the education effort in our ability to assess subjectively an independent each complaint to make sure its handled in a timely fashion. If individuals are concerned about retaliation we need to move promptly so any potential wrongdoing can be prevented promptly and quickly. I know some members will ask some in depth about the study and i will allow them to get into your reason for returning it. One thing that came up was how the report was lost in the refound. I think iou the opportunity to give that explanation. And the fact that it was lost and found, was anybody held accountable for losing that as well . Thank you. Ill be happy to discuss those issues. I know thats on the mind of a number of members. Its an important issue an important report. If i can briefly go through the explanation, we received a copy of the committees study, 6000 page, highly classified in december of 2014. Was provided on the disk. Then Inspector General ordered it be uploaded to a classified office of Inspector General system. That was done. Shortly thereafter, we receive guidance that the report should not be placed in any system because of an ongoing foia litigation in the d. C. Circuit. So, an email was sent back to the organization that had Investigative Organization with a classified system is held to delete the report and take the disk containing the study and place it in a classified safe. The report was deleted from the system, but the it administrator responsible for the uploading of the report and handling the disk did not receive that email. The processes in place at cia and at cia oig when we take a report of the media we place it on to the classified system is to destroy the diskette. So, sometime later, several months when requested if we had the disk and where was it, i asked where it was. Nobody could find the disk. I informed the committee we cannot find the desk. Then i initiated an internal investigation to ensure and to find out what happened. Testimony given to us by it administrator was the disk had been shredded in this particular administrator was unaware of the deletion of the document from our system and had shredded the disk. Several months later, during the course of an individual to party retiring there going through their classified safe from the disk. Coincidentally the bit embarrassing it was an embarrassing meant to me. The litigation from the foyer issue had ceased, it was done in part of the conclusion was that the document was a congressional document. I informed the committee that we had found the desk. I also opened another investigation to find out what happened. How can we find testimony that this was shredded when it had not been shredded . We found the individual with sense left employment from the office of the cia that person told us that it was essentially a guess. They dont remember shredding the disk but they felt because they had shredded other media they shredded that as well. Its embarrassing and i apologize. As around that time a request from the chair of the committee that produced the study to return that study on the disk that i made an independent judgment to return the disk. I stand by that judgment, the judgment and decision to return the disk is not reflection on what i feel the quality of the report was. It was a fiveyear effort and 6000 page report. I understand its value. I do have an unclassified copy of the executive summary as well as a classified copy in my possession. Those were the circumstances. The individual responsible for given the wrongful or incorrect testimony is no longer employed with us. I have since changed the processes that cia oig to ensure Something Like this cannot happen again theres a second decision love one all shredded media even though the processes have not undergone that in the past. The processes in place in a standby. Im convinced nothing would ever happen like this again. Thank you for taking the time to meet with me. I thought your candid and answered the questions appropriately. Thank you. Any other questions i have would be for a classified setting. Will save them for either there or submit them to the record. Thank you. I thank you for meeting with me. I did hear the disk story from you. I have one question, when did you inform the committee that you had found the disk . I dont have the specific date, but as soon as i found the disk i called up and informed the staff chiefs. If you can find the day, i would appreciate knowing this. I have a special interest in this and i was chairman of the committee when the report was done. To my knowledge not a fact has been refuted in the 7000 page report or the 500 page summary today. So, the point of distributing it to the department was in the hope that they would read it, not look at it at some point in document and learn from it. I doubt that has happened and i look forward to its declassification. I think the time is coming shortly when it should be declassified. And i think members of congress agree with that. Let me if i can go to a document that i just received having to do with the whistleblower situation. Im going to read a little bit and then ask for your comment. The points out that the intelligence committees handling of whistleblowers has begun to attract questions from lawmakers and the public. They point out one instance on a man by ehlert and said this highlights the communitys continuing struggle to deal with the issue. The document, dated february 2017 appears on the official letterhead and it details what it describes as serious flaws and procedures used to investigate retaliation cases across the intelligence community. The title, evaluation of protections pertaining to whistleblowers with access to classified information. It is unclassified. Authors name is redacted i would ask that you send a copy to the intelligence committees office. I am unfamiliar with that document. I am not aware of its contents space and. On the office of the iag, the letterhead of the intelligence community. Yes. The icig didnt make me aware so this is the first time im aware of this program. Something you said if i may respond let me read the conclusion. The deficiencies and free prize old protection policies procedureslu and standards in te evaluated agencies are causing a failure to provide protections for individuals making the protected disclosures. In the context of the document, protected disclosures refer to legally sanctioned revelations of alleged wrongdoing by intelligence employees to their superiors or others and that government designated to receive the information. The document states, and i quote, a complainant alleging reprisal for making a protected disclosure has a minimal chance to make a complaint process and add adjudicated in a timely and complete manner. Then it says in response to the damaging leaks, president obama issued president ial policy directive 19, parts of which were enacted into law establishing procedures under which the whistleblowers to report waste, fraud and abuse without fear of retaliation. Theres also a couple cases i wont go into right now, but i am interested that you have not seen this document. Ss i am not in possession of the document, i am not aware of it. Let me give you the title. It says Inspector General nominee has three whistleblower retaliation casespe implicating him. It is by a man by the name of adam, and this is the project on government oversight, that is the letterhead. What do you know about these cases . I recently read an article by this gentleman. I am unaware of any open investigationsna on the, the details of any complaints about me. So it is hard for me to respond to that but what i would say its if there are complaints and investigations i am unaware of, that would be, i support a process in place that would protect the confidentiality of any one or the anonymity of anyone who wanted to bring a complaint forward on an acting ige or anybody else, any other official as an acting Inspector General who works in the world of confidentiality, anonymity etc. I think it is very important that we recognize these processes and that we honor them but i cant speak to the specifics. I would ask that the document be put in the record and so that we can take a look at it and in writing know what is fact and what is fiction. If i may take one moment with respect to the documents thatak you are referring to it is done in r assessment to a minimal number of people whove been retaliated against him after if you looked at in a timely fashion and is across. I cant speak for the rest of the inspectors general. I cant speak for the cia Inspector General and i challenge the validity of the statements. I feel very strongly about the whistleblower retaliation program. The handle old concerns whether they are involving in potential cramer mismanagement. I dont know where that is coming from, i dont know of any assessments that have been accomplished on the outside. For anyone to make those claims. It will be included in the record and i would also ask the staff if i understood senator feinsteins reading of the document it is the icig who holds the document, it isnt the cia ig so i would say we need that intelligencet community ig. Thank you mr. Chairman without commenting directly on any specific applications or claims have you ever retaliated against any whistleblower in the cia ig office or any other federal agency . Know, senator, i have not. Thank you. I want to commend you for being a very productive Inspector General. As i understand it dave issued reports and made more than 340 recommendations to the agency to improve effectiveness and efficiency in just the last ye year. One of the committees Top Priorities is to make sure that eachnc of the intelligence agencies is t everything that it can to minimize the risk posed by Insider Threats. Insiders have repeatedly exposed devastating amounts of highly classified information. I know to do thereforeo with great interest your office conduct did a review of the agencys Insider Threat programs and activities. Without getting into any classified information, could you confirm whether it be agency implemented all of the recommendations with respect to that audit regarding Insider Threats flex is a very important question and an extremely important iss issue. They havent implemented all of our recommendations. Sometime ago some time ago i inn inside threat. Initiative as weve referred to it. This is a very important area that you bring up. With that said, i know and i wont speak for the director but hes placed an emphasis on the Mission Center who carries out along with the office of security programs and mission involving inside threat and i know the director has taken a particular interest and theyve done a lot of work on the inside threat but a lot more work needs to be done. Even though i am in the process now of issuing a report that will summarize all the work weve done as i describe and also add some additional areas that we have examined doesnt mean im goingng to back off the issue of Insider Threats. Im very glad to hear that and i would ask that you keep the committee fully apprised of your efforts in this area and identified to the Committee Recommendations that have not been implemented because thats really hard to understand given the egregious breaches that have occurred in the intelligence community. I can to doing that. Thank you mr. Chairman. Im troubled about the decision to return your copy of the report. It was sent to your office so that lessons could be learned not just about torture but topics including Inspector General oversight. I just believe your decision sets a terrible precedent for the current and future work. If your office and the committee are going toff be racing Historical Records because somebody on the road is unhappy about them, our country is going to need a lucky racers. So, hypothetically i would like to ask you what a few years from now after this committee has sent your office he repor reporn russias interference in our election a future chair of the Committee Says he doesnt like the report and once it returned, what would r you do . To well, i avoid hypothetical answers to hypothetical questions. How does your decision not set up a terrible precedent . My decision, senator was in response to a request from the chair. That was the trigger from my returning of the report. So, you are obligated to follow the law. I dont see why the law doesnt govern u this, but maybe im missing something. Your highest obligation is to follow the law and i guess you are saying you made your judgment on the basis of other factors. You were asked for it and that is fact. T. But ive got to tell you, i dont like the concept of tort office picking and choosing which investigative reports youre going to keep. And thats the inescapable conclusion about all this. I followed the business about the shredded of this and then you found it, but you still returned it. And i would like to know anything else that may have driven your judgment here. It is very straightforward i made an independent judgment to return the report but youre not concerned about a precedent . It seems to me this sets a horrible precedent youre not concerned about setting a precedent hearing . We are talking about a hypothetical once again. Im asking about something that conceivably could happen and sets up the president for your office picking and choosing which investigative reports you are goingat to keep. I think our highest duty is to follow the law and the ideas the chair asked for it and that is to govern. My colleagues asked the question of whistleblowers and you brought up the cia contractorio whistleblowers and this is just a yes or no answer. Do you believe that the whistleblower protections should extend. Soes yes or no do you believe tt they ought to extend to the cia contractors . Yes i do. Thank you as you know full well the office of Inspector General is the eyes and ears of kennedy and we are dependentof on the investigations happening in the Inspector Generals office. So i want to be able to get some clarity on this as well. Do they have oversight the same as any other operation . Yes and they do. I review all covert operation efforts at least every three years. So this is going into the permanent nomination you have a little time to focus on things that are longer are there structural changes you can make in the office or agency to say we need to take a long look in these areas . There are, thank you for the question. If i am confirmed, my intent is to do a top to bottom review of our organizational structure. That shouldnt worry my staff to ensure that the resources are focused in the right places to use them most efficiently. There are areas of covert operation we can focus a little more effectively on and out and acting Inspector General, you dont want to make far reaching organizational changes so if confirmed, i would go ahead and look at those programs. It is a challenge in the organization that has such a difficult task to be able to measure success so for the dollars that are invested for the American People overseen by this committee and you have the responsibility and oversight as well howsp will you work with te agency to break down these operations and make sure that they are looking at metrics for success and that they are being evaluated whether that is the right measurement to be able to use and that they are hitting the target. I agreed to measures of effectiveness are important. We are spending a lot of taxpayer funds on matters that dont see the light of day and i think it is important from a Business Enterprise standpoint and a risk valuation standpoint that they have certainly covert action in other areas of the mission half measures in place. Those areas are typically examined when we conduct an audit or investigation and as we spoke you will find many of the reports if they are not there, we will make a recommendation that goes to the area of unique look at this and examined whether this is ineffective or efficient. That goes to be if you will metricss of our overall approac, our standards of howw we conduct the audits and inspections to a different respect of the investigations. But, i think one way of ensuring that an organization is running efficiently whether it is effective is again to look at the measures of effectiveness and i will continue looking at the theory that area. As the deputy and acting ag, did you read this full report on the interrogation techniques . Senator, no i didnt. I had no opportunity to read it. The report was placed in a classified Information System in the office of Inspector General and very shortly thereafter deleted and we thought that it had been misplaced. It seems that it is awfully hard to learn the potential lessons of that report if it wasnt consumed and red and read processed in your office. I had the opportunity to read however there were certainly chapters that dealt d specificay with the operations of the ig office but it seems to me would be something you would want to be about the process to make sure if mistakes were made they were not made again. Did you consider that before returning the report . My decision is not a reflection of the value i place onon the report did you consider reading theou report before returning them so you can do your job more effectively . No i did not. I didnt have an opportunity to sit down and read a report because the time we found the report be requested around the same time the report you returned. And he returned based on your own judgment so you could have taken the time to return the report. I could have, yes but i chose not to give hi defend the time. You said if lists were independent judgment to return the report. Walk us through that it doesnt give us a lot of detail. What was your thinking and thesis on why you decided that it was very straightforward. From my standpoint it was a congressional document and the chair of the committee that produced the report requested by return it. Did the vice chair request that you return it . Did you think through the implications of what that might mean for the future report . I dont recall beyond what i already testified to. Could you see how people would be concerned that it might set a precedent for future cases . I can understand the concern, yes. With regards to the report itself and the loss once again it has been shredded which turned out not to be the case youve said it was testified to by a former employee that it was essentially a test that does not inspire a lot of confidence that the report to the operation wouldth be handled within the office. Can you speak to how you would address that and the subsequent media . Yes, senator i. Would be pleased too. To. The individual responsible for handling the disc is the individual said they shredded it. When we found this and went back to speak with the individual is no longer an employee of ours or the cia shrugged his shoulders and said it was, i dont remember seeing a shredded i just had a stack of media and thought i shredded it. I can see how an employee who had a stack of media on their desk would have that reaction. Im just thinking something as important of this should have required a higher level of attention. So, the changes i referred to when we were talking about this earlier, i put in place that there must be a supervisory level approval before any media is shredded so that they if other instructions have come out and for some reason it misses the administrator in the future, there will be a Quality Assurance if you will in place to review and authorize the shred and that way we will avoid a somethinSomething Like this hn the future. Since most of your questions deal with a request i made of every agency in the federal government that had copies of the report lets me set the sta stage. The stage is that this was battled on our behalf by the Justice Department of the obama administration. They didnthe have to do it. They believed it was a Committee Document. They fought it in court and we won the district court, the dc court of appeals. Last was the United States Supreme Court and a rule that there that this was committee property. I appreciate the fact members disagree with the actions of the chair man, but i made a determination when i initiated the belief that this was a Committee Document that there is a precedent and youre right, the next chair man can determine that they would like to push this out. There was never a Committee Vote to push this out. That was a unilateral decision, so. Lawyerlawyers and the agency maa determination based on the process that i had every right to make the request and that they were in most cases obligated to return them so id share that with you to give you a little bit of history and maybe you wont necessarily come them mr. Sharpley. Did to consult with the general counsel or anyone else making that decision . My counsel. And what was the nature of that advice . I was making a decision to return this, the circumstances was there anything else i should know and the answer was no. This is your judgment to respond to the chair. Thank you. I think you have one of the most important jobs in the United States government because a secret agencyt in the democracy is an anomaly, and unnecessary anomaly but still an anomaly because the transparency and accountability that applies to virtually every other aspect of the government isnt present by necessity. That means those of us including you who are given the responsibility of providing the only oversight of this agency is especially all some in my view and i want to have your commitment that you realize this is a different job qualitatively in my view van in the department of agriculture or even the pentagon. Do you understand the weight of this position fax absolutely as i said in my opening remarks at his ideal effect programs that are highly classified dont share best practices. They focus on the mission and are not necessarily focus on efficiency and effectiveness. When you are dealing with those types of programs as i have with special Access Programs and nuclearal weapons programs thats all they do in very classified areas and c classified missionso look at this and shine that light on those activitieso to ensure that they are adhering to the wallwa and programs are beig run in an efficient and effective manner as i stressed with you in our private discussions to giv give taxpayea seat at the table to make sure that their hard earned money and taxes are being utilized properly and that the constitution is being provided. Senator coburn and i had provision in the authorization bill that instructed the gao which has people with full clearance to do some analysis of the fighting of physical facilities whether we were efficiently utilizing them and the report occurred. Do you view this as a possible ally in your work . I understand that the gao is working at the request of the direction of the oversight committees. There areic policies and procedures at the cia and of course the office of the intelligence dealing with the work of the gao. I worked with them in the past and my only concern that i have in this falls back into my lap is to reach out when they start work and do work. They make sure the work weve done and we have products that are useful and this would be inefficient i wouldnt want the gao to add to these efficiency items i understand your concern that what you are telling me is in certain a situations you woud view it as an ally of your office. One final question do you view checking on or repealing the integrity of thee analytical process is this your response of the . Yes sir. I want to emphasize that because theres a great danger youat indicated earlier a danger of contamination of the produc because of commitments to the mission if you will, and again you are one of the few bulwarks against that i the system of oversight. Weve looked at the objectivity and plan in the coming year and out years if i continue work in that area it is a very important area. I want to emphasize the importance because if youu look back many of our Foreign Policy disasters were based upon skewed intelligence based upon the desire of the policymakers so it seems to me that it is an absolutelybs key function becaue human nature is to tell the boss what they want to hear. I understand your concern and you have my commitment to take on that issue and continue to lookok at it. Thank you mr. Chairman and having your family for support. The fact that you served maybe you might want to explain how that prepares you for the job we are asking you to do. I had an opportunity to be part of the group for integrity and efficiency to be a part of the development of the quality standards for investigations and inspections. Those are sort of the benchmark best practices of oversight and since then changed slightly but the best practices are there. When i arrived at the cia the reason i was asked to come on board is to use the standards. Having had the opportunity to stand up and be a significant part of standing up to the office of Inspector General and was able to utilize that knowledge and skills that i obtainethe skills that iobtained of time and put them to work in those organizations and they have been successful reporting goes to the treasury. The same approach i used at the office of Inspector General. Thank you senator. Caused me to set back and reconsider this you are not able to do what needed to be done but you had others that could help you do it. One is used for salaries and awards and the other is contracting and travel. The policy of the cia is you cant cross them across the silos but he appreciated the discussion and that is if there were a way to move money across and to address issues and needs i have for example but if you dont have more money, how to be more efficient. I asked my attorney to address this to see if theres a way that i cant do that and we are now doubling down and addressing it to see if there is a way that we can do it so i would ask committees support if we are not able to do it for a legal reason i am not aware of that as it stands currently, im going to see if we can do this. Two quick questions. What is the greatest Security Risk the United States faces . Outside of the threats to the nation is an shrink the ensuriny of our intelligence programs and that those involved in the various Intelligence Missions remain dedicated and true to their oath. That is why ive done a lot of workn on how to strengthen the systems and the agency to ensure when people do run astray we have systems in place. And finally, if you are asked by the president to render your assessment and evaluation do you feel confident you can speak truth to power we know its important politics not shape the work we do in the intelligence agencies and intelligence community. Can you tell this committee to limit your full independence since youve been acting . You are very helpful and i thank you for your help their. Theres never been a time of anyone trying to undermine the Inspector General. Its clear thats not something i think anyone would attempt but its written into the fabric of the process and every opportunity we emphasiz emphasie importance of independence. I know that this director is very aware of that and im sure very supportive. And will you commit that if you are ever in any way talked with or anyone indicates the host you might one thingou or another that he will report back to the committee . Has this prevented you from getting information that you need to assess a situation in terms of performing your oversight responsibilities will you commit to notify the committee if in the future you face any resistance whatsoever in your efforts to obtain information that is necessary to pursue your responsibilities . Tried to commit to that. I am unaware of any circumstance since ive been the acting Inspector General rely on the committee to helpin you if you need help accomplishing that goal. Theres been a l lot of discussn about whistleblowers and i understand you were not aware of the type of government oversight report released yesterday on the open cases involving allegations that you and others committed retaliation against but this is a serious concern and im going to assume after the hearing you will familiarize yourself with what is in that report and my request is that you can immediately report back to the committee in writing are you willing to do that . There was a report written and i am unfamiliar with the report from the icy eiji. I am aware that the site complaints made against me on the retaliation. I am unaware of any ongoing investigations or details of any complaints and with no actions or conclusions of wrongdoing made about my career or anything that i can. As it relates than to the letter that was referred to earlier by senator feinstein, will you familiarize yourself with the contents o of that and report back to the committee and your perspective of what that says about these cases . S. Senator yes senator i comg that. And you understand that when we are talking about the importance of whistleblowers, its for those folks to come forward and report what they know it is an intimidating process. They are putting their jobs on the line and opening themselves up to the likelihood of retaliation if they dont have confidence in the system, it is likely that they will not report to the eiji but equally likely wanting the information to get out and have transparency and some light on the issue that they were even prone to leak the information to the press. So we are talking about classified information which creates its own plumbs when it is leaked to the press. Will you commit to improving and strengtheningng the systems that are currently in place to ensure there is no retaliation whatsoever when whistleblowers come forward . I can investigate concerns about retaliatory actions and i commit to you we will continually improve upon our systems and programs in place. Thank you mr. Chairman. Thank you senator harris. Do any members seek additional time . Theres been a lot of concern about the whistleblower issues understand. You might not be aware of the content of that. There would be granted to the communities Stay Authority to make sure that the whistleblower would request from being reprised and retaliated against. Most all the rest of the federal government has those protections i know we talked about this briefly inth my office. Do you believe that the employees even though it isnt to be in law do you believe they ought to have this type of protectionon . Improvement toy the whistleblowers. I am not aware in my five plus years as a cia where in the state authority would have changed the circumstance. Doesnt mean something couldnt happen in the future, so i do support. In light of some of the concerns raised and the importance ofis the child, our b and your toin your top because e unique nature i do think going the extra mile that there would be this approach in terms of Holding Harmless a complaint against any kind of reprisal from the agency itself and should he be confirmed, i would hope to bring that message back to the agency. You have my commitment. Thank you for your testimony to the committee. I wouldt urge members if they have additional questions to make them available before the end of business today. Thank you for being here to support your husband and children and its great to have you here for this and with that, the hearing is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] in a partyline vote of the senate advanced a budget resolution to make way for republicans to introduce a tax reform package a final note on the budget is expected. The Senate Budget committee took an important First Step Towards tax reform by approving a fiscal year 2018 budget resolution focused on growing americas economy through tax policies and put more money in the hands of hardworking americans. This week we take the next step as the Senate Begins the blueprint for the longoverdue tax relief for families and job creators to jumpstart economic growth