Transcripts For CSPAN3 Former Senator Dan Coats Testifies At DNI Confirmation Hearing 20170306

Victims, they are victims. All c span programs available on c span. Home page and searching the video library. The Senate Intelligence Committee Confirmation hearing for dan coats. President trumps pick for National Intelligence. This is two hours. Call this hearing to order. Id like to welcome our witness today. Senator dan coats. President trumps nominee to be the next director of National Intelligence. Dan, graduaticongratulations on nomination and welcome back. Sure you didnt expect to be walking these haul halls so so after your retirement. Also like to welcome back your wife and my good friend, marsha. And i want to thank her for her support for you. And her willingness to share you with the rest of the coup tntry ive known wyou both. Our goal is conducting the committee to consider senator coats qualifications and allow for thoughtful deliberations by members. Hes provided written responses to more than 148 questions presented by the committee and members. Today, of course, members will be able to ask additional questions and hear from senator coats in both open and close session. Dan coats comes to us with more than 34 years of Honorable Service in the house, senate, and u. S. Ambassador to germany. Those of us who have the good fortune to work with dan know the depth of his commitment and to his work force. Senator coats. Youve been asked to lead the Intelligence Community at a time of profound threat and challenge. Facing threats from state and nonstate actors alike and engaged instead a robust debate at home on the scope and scale of intelligence collection and what authorities are ripe, appropriate and lawful. I expect you will be forceful advocate for the Intelligence Community and those discussions while maintaining an unwavering respect for the rule of law. I have complete trust you will lead the community with integrity and will ensure that the intelligence enterprise operates lawfully, ethically, and morally. As the dni one of your most important tools will be the legal authorities provided under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act scheduled to set later this year. Label the Intelligence Community to protect troops, anticipate terrorist threats and mitigate Cyber Attacks all while safe guarding the privacy and civil lishlt liberties of the American People. Simply put, its essential congress authorize these authorities to help keep the country safe while protecting constitutional rights. I look forward to working with you and all of my colleagues to reauthorize as soon as possible. Dan, ive known for many years and believe your years of service to our nation and unique experience make you a natural fit to lead our Intelligence Community. As mentioned director pompeo during his nomination, i can assure you this committee will continue to faithfully follow charter. Conduct vigorous and realtime oversight over the Intelligence Community. Its operations and activities. Well ask difficult and probing questions of you. Your staff and we will expect honest, complete and timely responses. I look forward to supporting your nomination. I want to thank you again for being here for years of service to the country. I look forward to your testimony and im not recognize the vice chairman for any comments he might make. Thank you players championship mr. Chairman. Congratulations to serve as the fifth director of the National Intelligence. Known each other for many years. The president has made an excellent choice in asking you to serve as dni. Let me also echo the chairmans comments and acknowledging the member. I would point out that the only thing that i might potentially hold against you is that your senator you brought along raises some questions of judgment in my mind. I wont hold them against you throughout the whole hearing today. Senator coats is wellknown to the senate intelligent committee. He served as a Senior Member of this committee for many years. And has been an advocate. Dan firmly believes in the value of intelligence and the importance of timely relevant and absolutely free 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 we talked about on this committee when he served together. Tell truth the power, to the president , policy and military leaders, 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. The job for which youve been nominated has many rewards and possibly many even more challenges. Youll be expected to lead an enterprise as weve talked about privately of 17 diverse intelligence agencagencies. In some areas Clear Authority to direct actions. In most areas the odi has to also convince rather than simply having to direct authority. Be expected to serve as president s top Intelligence Officer. To coordinate and integrate in intelligence activities. To lead the work and enhance the effectiveness of the intelligence enterprise. And ensure the integrity of that analytic product. While these are a few of the many issues you face, i know youre up to the challenge. I need to make clear many my Opening Statement, one of the first challenges i will ask you to take on head on is to support our efforts to understand russias interference in the 2016 president ial election. As you know, this committee is conducting an investigation into that interference. Were also looking into weather any individuals associated with u. S. Political campaigns inappropriately engaged with officials of the russian government. And well seek to determine what the intentions of those interactions were. We take this matter very, very seriously. The chairman and i as well as members of the committee on both sides of the aisle have made commitments that the outcome of this investigation will not be prejudged and if the committee will follow wherever the information leads. We need to get it right. My intention this investigation will remain bipartisan and seek to be as transparent as pock possible. And remain free of any political consideration or interference including, including interference from the white house. I will not accept any process that is undermined by such political interference. This inquiry will be thorough and exhaustive. At the end of the day, what we owe most is answers to American Public. You know how important this type of inquiry is. Its not about being a democratic or a republican. Nor is it about relitigating 2016 election. This is truly about upholding the core values and sankty of all that americans hold dear. Our plan is to review the raw intelligence. Understand how the Intelligence Committee made conclusions on russian interference. Ill ask you today again to commit to all members of this committee that youll fully cooperate with this review and that you direct all the Intelligence Committee agencies to provide all the information that we require including the raw information. Make sure we get it right. Another topics, you and i had a very good conversation in my office a few weeks ago. Talked about the fact we didnt think you would be back in so quickly. I very much appreciated that conversation. You assured me there that you will not support the return of water boarding or other socalled intense interrogation practices. No support reestablishes secret retention sites operated by the i by the best judgment of the Intelligence Community. Whether that analysis is in agreement or disagreement with the views of the president or for that matter anyone else. Again, i will ask you today to reaffirm those commitments that you made to me and make them publicly to the American Public. Finally, if confirmed, and i look forward to supporting you, you will have unique challenge of working for a president who has said comments that i believe at times has denigrated some of the work of the intelligence can community. So you will have a very Important Role to make sure that brave men and women who serve us often in anonymity, that you will have their back. And make sure the morale of these brave men and women is increased and is respected. Senator coats, again, thank you for being with us today. I want to thank you for your willingness to serve. And i look forward to working with the chairman as we go through this hearing. Thank you, very much. Thank you, vice chairman. I would like to recognize select Committee Intelligence and my good friend, Saxby Chambliss who will introduce senator coats. Saxby . Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Cut on that microphone, will you . I know its been a long time since youve been here. You know, when i was in the Senate Somebody did all this for me. Ive had to adjust to a lot of things like that. It is really good to be back in front of so many friends on this committee and as much as i miss each of you individually, i have to say, im happy to be on this side of the dais today. Im happy to introduce to you a friend of all of us senator dan coats, nominated by President Trump to be the fifth director of National Intelligence. S2465 was introduced by senators feinstein, rockefeller and graham on the 19th of june, 2002. Then after 2 1 2 years of discussion and debate, the intel reform and terrorism prevention act of 2004 was passed overwhelmingly by both the house and senate and signed into law by president bush. That act created the office of the director of National Intelligence and placed all of the placed the dni at the head of the 16member intelligence agencies. The dni was charged with directing and overseeing the National Intelligence program and to serve as an adviser to the president and the executive offices of the National Security council and the homeland Security Council about Intelligence Matters related to the National Security of the United States. Today i understand that odni have somewhere around 2,000 employees who support the dni as oversight responsibility for the entire National Intelligence program of some 53 billion. Some recently questioned the structure and effectiveness of odni. 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 that during these 12 years with strong leadership for the dni, from a commitment of to security by dedicated employees at odni, and by very good oversight of this committee and the hpsci, odni led an ic that led intelligence to its customers that prevented another large scale 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 from dni is more important today than ever. No one is better suited to give that leadership than our friend and former colleague, dan coats. As ambassador to germany he was a customer of the ic. A long time member of this committee, dan participated in conducting extensive oversight of the ic. Now he will be providing the intelligence that is to be subjected to that oversight. His experience prepares him well for both of these new roles. I have traveled the world with dan coats many times, visiting our counterparts, our allies and world leaders. And while dan is, for the most part, as we all know, very friendly and easy going, ive had the opportunity to observe dan in being very firm and direct, in addressing sensitive and difficult issues with all of those individuals that we have visited. And doing so in a very professional manner. Dan has been in Public Service since 1976 when he was district director for then congressman dan quayle. He then served in the house of representatives, United States senate, and ambassador to germany, and then again in the u. S. Senate. Now after that remarkable 40year career, dan is willing to continue to serve his country as the dni. Lastly, let me say that a lot of dans strength comes from the constant support he received from his lovely wife marcia, to whom he has been married now for over 50 years. I will leave it to dan to introduce her but suffice it to say shes been a great teammate. In using sports nomenclature there, with top security i get good intelligence from time to time and one piece of intelligence i picked up on about dan is that he is a huge chicago cubs fan. Needless to say, he felt pretty good last fall. But one other thing i found out about him is the day after he and marcia were married he took her to the a cubs game and his marriage still survived that. It is my pleasure to introduce to you senator dan coats. I urge all of you to send 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. Saxby, thank you. Dan, if you would stand please. Raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear to give the committee, the truth, the full truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god . I do. Please be seated. Dan, before we move to your statement, i would like to ask you to answer five questions that are standard for the committee. We pose it to each nominee who appears before us. They just require same yes or no for the record. Do you agree to appear before the committee here and other venues when invited. Yes. If confirmed do you agree to send officials from your office to appear before the committee and designated staff when invited. Yes. Do you agree to provide documents or any other materials requested by the committee in order for us to carry out our oversight and legislative responsibilities . Yes. Will you both ensure that your office and your staff provides such materials that the committee when requested . Yes. Do you agree to inform and fully brief to the fullest extent possible all committees of intelligence activities and covert action rather than only the chair and vice chairman where appropriate . Yes, where appropriate. I want to thank you very much. We proceed to your Opening Statement. You are recognized. Thank you. I have remarks thanking saxby. He needs to leave. And i want to jump ahead just a little bit of what i am going to say in my written remarks to you. Just to thank him. A great friend. Someone i had the pleasure of serving under on this committee. He has left his mark in many, many ways. Including friendship among his wife, and saxby between marcia and me. I want to thank him for being willing to come here today and make these remarks on my behalf. Chairman burr, vice chairman warner, members of the committee. Im honored to appear before you as nominee for the position of director of National Intelligence. It was a great privilege to have served on the Senate Select committee and committee on intelligence and see upclose the great work done by members of the staff and their supporters. I will admit however the view is a little bit different down here from up there. In fact, i recall many days sitting up there, looking to whoever is down here and saying, im glad thats not me. Well, here i am. I would like to begin by thanking President Trump for nominating me for the position of director of National Intelligence. Im humbled by his confidence in me. And will work tirelessly to lead the worlds, what i believe, and i think most believe, the finest intelligence enterprise in the world. I would like to also thank Vice President pence, my indiana colleague and someone im honored to call my friend, for his support. I deeply appreciate his faith in me. I would also like to acknowledge jim clapper and his Principal Deputy stephanie sullivan. Their stewardship over the past years has been commendable. And their guidance in helping me prepare for this position has been most helpful. They left a great team that has been instrumental in providing a smooth transition for the odni and the ic. And i want to recognize my fellow hoosiers who elected me several times to the house of representatives and to the United States senate over the past years. Ive done my best to represent them and im honored by the confidence they put in me time and time again. While i will always be a hoosier at heart, if confirmed as next director of National Intelligence, i will represent the dedicated men and women of the office of director of National Intelligence and broader Intelligence Community to the best of my ability. Finally saving the best for last, i would like to thank my wife, marcia, my children who are here today. Together my three children have produced, according to marcias and my observation, ten almost perfect grandchildren. My career in Public Service is a direct reflection of my familys enduring support and love and without their encouragement i would not be sitting here today. Its been a long road of Public Service thats brought me here before you after 34 years of service in the house, senate and as u. S. Ambassador to germany, i was ready to make a transition and plan to move on to a new chapter of my lifelong journey. Back home again, to indiana. But as i have learned over those 34 years, life doesnt always work out the way you think its good going to work out. When called upon to consider this position i first consulted my most important adviser, my wife, marcia. As i examine the responsibilities of such a significant office. As former teacher and family therapist marcia understands me, probably better than anybody. And the importance of Public Service. She is the rock that provides stability and wise counsel. Shoulder to shoulder with me at every aspect of my life. While im no longer retiring from Public Service, what i am retiring as i sit here today is my policy hat. Hat i wore as i represented my constituents, made judgments and cast votes in committee and on the floor. That hat will be replaced. Its retired. But if confirmed, i put on a new hat. The dni hat. And just as this government transitions to a new leadership i too hope to transition to the role of principal intelligence adviser to the president and all duties that come with that. In this new role, it will be my responsibility to present to the president , seniors in the administration and you the congress with the best and most objective nonpolitical and timely intelligence as you consider policies in the future for our great nation. The president and i have personally discussed my potential role as his principal intelligence adviser and we both recognize that this position is frequently the bearer of unpleasant news. But if confirmed, my responsibility would be to provide him with the most accurate and objective and 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 as dni. Those who know me and saxby referenced this, im an avid sports fan and never more avid this past year as i celebrated the seemingly impossible accomplishment of the chicago cubs after 108 years of effort, winning the world series. So allow me to compare how i see my role as dni using, well, an baseball analogy, but a football analogy. On the Football Team the players are guided by a variety of coaches. You wonder how many there are. One time i counted and i thought there were 17. I thought that meant something here relative to the number of agencies we look after. There is a coach for offense, defense, special teams, one for offensive line, one for defensive line, one for quarterback and on and on it goes. But every team has a head coach. That leader who walks the sidelines and while not dictating to each coach, assistant coach how do their specific job, pulls each of the specialists together to form a seamless and focused team. I see the role of director of National Intelligence as analogous for the head role for the Intelligence Community. Integrating ic and leveraging all of the expertise in our community. We have immense talent resonant in many agencies across the ic. Each one contributes unique capabilities of our expertise that is necessary for a team to be as a whole successful. Unique access of our human intelligence sources and Detailed Analysis from the cia. The important input from the Defense Intelligence agency. Expertise of the National Security agency. Which i believe is second to none. Geo spatial mastery demonstrated by the geo spatial intelligence agency, acquisition proficiency of satellite specialists at the National Reconnaissance office, the force multiplier, the intelligence of Armed Services bring to this team effort. Domestic counterterrorism worked on by the fbi and specialized skills of the ic elements relevant within the state department of treasury, justice, Homeland Security. And energy. Like eye 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 and around the world now more than ever the ic must work as a team. The threats are more challenging, dynamic and geographically diffuse than ever before. Allow me to address in no particular order what i see as some of the most challenging 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 a resource and a liability, and increasingly connected world that creates tremendous opportunities, but also many vulnerabilities. Not unrelated, i would also highlight the threat of radical islamic terrorism which continues to be a significant threat to the United States and its allies abroad. They are spreading their message of fear and hate through cyber space and mobilizing to venues beyond the selfdescribed caliphate. Chinas continued regional activism including the disputed territorial claims in the east and south china seas 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 address with eyes wide open and healthy degree of skepticism. And north koreas provocations is something the Intelligence Community needs to be laser focused on. The list continues with a diverse set of challenges including iran, syria, afghanistan and other hot spots around the world. I will bring my years of experience on how to execute a plan and bring together teams of people toward a common goal. As the ambassador to germany from 2001 to 2005 i oversought activity of more than a dozen federal agencies at the american embassy. I trust that my experience is coordinating and integrating that many different departments and agencies overseeing their activities, leveraging their strengths and bringing them together under a single strategy will serve you well as dni. As members of congress in both of house and senate i have had a keen interest as hopefully you know. In ensuring we are responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars. In evaluating federal programs i made it a point to ask questions about what works and what doesnt and why. I also believed it was important to assess how we establish priorities. We must ask ourselves, in a time of tightened budgets what programs are truly essential and which may no longer be necessary or only partly necessary or of lower priority. How does each Program Support our overall goal or strategy and it is duplicative of another effort . I will be looking to ask the ic and these and many more questions if confirmed as dni. And in the vein of efficiency theres much discussion about the role of the dni in the office of the dni. Let me share with you what i have learned in preparation for this opportunity. Over the last 12 years since its inception it has been tasked by many responsibilities. Many in statute. Executive orders, president ial memoranda. Along with recommendations coming from the 9 11 commission and silverman rod commission on wmd. The people supporting these directives are hardworking folks from all across the ic. Ive known a significant amount is on rotation from other agency as you know nctc, an organization of 750 people, created by the law enacted in 2005 work is counted in that number that we have. Which is less than 2,000. By the way, less than a third of the number of band members for the Armed Services. So that may put it in some perspective. Odni was established for pre9 11 stove piping to ensure collaboration and integration across the intelligence elements. People are who are supporting these directives are hardworking folks from all across the ic. Odni brings together talent from across the community to integrate intelligence it does its best to connect the dots. Not just specific dots from specific agencies and specialties and in keeping with earlier football analogy you cant play a complete game with just a star quarterback and wide receiver. Maybe if you are the patriots you can pull that off once in a while but i dont think that happens very often but even the pats need a strong offensive line, strong defense, agile teams and place kicker along with many other players to be the best in the business. Not everyone will be the mvp but they are a team nonetheless and everyone on the field plays a critical role. We succeed as a team. If we come up short, we fail as a team. And we use that experience to address it so it doesnt happen again. As i looked at many requirements of the office reflected in various laws orders and recommendations i have been em impressed by the offices responsiveness to the many tasks by the resources that we have. With the size of the odni doesnt mesh with what i have seen firsthand and i believe it does a disservice to this committee and your efforts to keep the size of odni in check which is your obligation and my obligation. I 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 ic and try to learn how we can do things more efficiently and effectively. We dont have a choice. Much has been made public i about the role of the enterprise and how itll fair in the future. Im encouraged by what i see with Leadership Team in place at ic agencies i know this community will continue as world class intelligence enterprise it is today. Before going to questions, let me share with you the early goals if confirmed i will share with the ic. I intend to push the ic to be the best it can. And not accept the status quo when it comes to challenges facing our nation. I expect the ic to be innovative in its approach to hard problems and solutions to solve them. I intend to be a champion for the hardworking men and women for the ic. Be there for them the way they were here for all of us. Everyday men and women of the ic work tirelessly on the front lines, often in the shadows, often times in very dangerous situations with a common goal of keeping america safe and secure. I also intend to work with all of you as former member of the committee, to ensure you that the ic has support it needs to tackle whatever the opposing teams bring our way and to ensure that congress and this committee have access to the 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 your questions. Dan, thank you very much. Let me say for members, i will recognize members in order of seniority for five minute round for those that need it we will have a followup round. Just for members timing we will go from open hearing immediately when complete to a closed hearing for whatever period that might take and that will be in our normal hearing room. With that, let me recognize myself for five minutes. Dan, you and marcia had a good gig. Retirement. She was excited. You were actually really excited. 34 years. Now youve got now you have agreed to do a job that many called thankless. Why . Ive been asked that question many times each step of the journey. The response has always come down to a sense of duty. When asked to serve your country, whether it was in uniform, which i did for two years. Or whether it was in the congress or ambassador and the run for senate again after quite a hiatus. And then to say yes to this job, i was reminded of the phrase that runs through my mind. I dreamt and believe that life was a beauty and i think thats what i was looking forward to. I woke and found that life is a duty. When asked by the leader of 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. If asked by committee, will you provide raw intelligence to the finished product and assessments . I absolutely believe that is my responsibility and the responsibility of the ic to provide what this committee needs to do, to do its oversight properly. I noticed in your statement, that you highlighted my and i quote, acquisition proficiency of satellite specialist unquoted as National Reconnaissance office. Im sure you probably agree, however, that the Requirements Development process for our satellites is in need of significant reform. Will you work with the committee to streamline that process to ensure that we can more quickly get to the design, build and launch phase . Absolutely. Agility is critical in this time of rapid technological change. We see, and i believe now, 11 nations who have the capacity to launch instruments into space. I was shocked the other day it read that the nation of india on one rocket launched, deposited more than a hundred satellites in space. They may be small in size with different functions and so forth but one rocket can send up i think 111 platforms. We cannot afford to be behind the curve of the offensive and defensive capacities that we put up into space. And so, streamlining that acquisition process is not something that should be done, it is utmost importance that it has to be done. There is much discussion about the role the cia played in the interrogation of terrorists suspect as part of the rdi program, those detention facilities operated by the cia have long been closed and president obama officially ended the program seven years ago. I think the debate space on this subject has become confused and im certain that law is now very clear. Do you agree that it would require a change in law for the cia or any Government Agency to lawfully employ any interrogation techniques beyond those defined in the Army Field Manual . I absolutely support that. That is the law. I might note for the committee, you may ill bring it up if you dont, when that vote on the ndaa came up, the mccain amendment, i was one of a few who did not support that amendment. First of all, i will follow the law of every aspect regardless of my personal thoughts. I had one reservation that i couldnt reconcile in my mind. I didnt think no because i didnt think thats where we needed to go. I voted no because i thought we needed to have a discussion about what you need to do in a situation where you have the necessary intelligence to know that something terrible is going to happen to the American People in a very short amount of time and you have the legitimate individual who can tell you where that radiological bomb or biological material is and you dont have time to go through the process that Army Field Manual requires. Im not saying that should im not saying im not trying as i said, i took off my policy hat. Im no longer engaged in that process. I follow the law. And im sure the ic follows the law. The answer to your question is absolutely. But i do think it is at least worth discussion relative to the situation that might occur where we might have to hopefully with some special authority, might have to go outside that. I dont have the prescription for that. Im not going to advocate for that. Im simply trying to find what it was going through my mind when that amendment came up. I thought we needed more discussion on that. That was on the policy side. That hats gone. You mentioned in your Opening Statement that you intend to ask the Intelligence Committee to be innovative in its approach to hard problems. Ive been pushing the community to innovate for years and i look forward to working with you and supporting this endeavor to change an ic community that looks forward with innovation as an opportunity. As has many on this committee. Turn to vice chairman. Thank one mr. Chairman. Let me echo what the chairman has said about satellites and our whole overhead capacity. I think you were part of many vigorous debates and think much more futureoriented and recognize as you pointed out both other nations moving in this area and tremendous opportunities within the commercial space so i appreciate your answer on that. As i mentioned in my Opening Statement, get you back on the record for items that are terribly important. I want to start again with an issue of great importance to me and i believe this committee and that is our current investigation into the 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 and intelligence products and other materials to the committee as promptly as possible. I think it is our responsibility to provide you access to all that you mentioned. And do you plan to continue any investigations the ic is carrying out or may carry out regarding russias active measures especially as a refer to interference and elections in our country and for that matter countries around the world . I think this is something that needs to be investigated and addressed. I have not seen the classified information. As my colleagues may or may not know, the day you go here and you leave the senate, you lose your classification. You have to start over at zero. It took much longer than we had anticipated. I just received it last thursday. I was back in indiana last week helping to try to 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 and it is happening in europe and as we speak. They seem to have stepped up their game and they are using cyber and sophisticated methods that they didnt have before so i think it is a very key issue that we understand fully what has happened and how its happened and have a full report on that. That certainly will make sure the ic produces the intelligence access that you need to do your job. I appreciate your answer. Obviously one of the Core Functions of the ic and as odni you have to coordinate this as the analogy back to the coach, of making sure that you speak truth to power, and youve got a remarkable background, but 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, being a policy advocate, how are you sure the Intelligence Community will continue to provide unvarnished assessments to the president and his administration regardless of any politics . Well, thats our responsibility and my primary responsibility to know exactly what we can and cant do. I want to make it very, very clear to all elements of the Intelligence Community that our job is to do our job, our job is not to formulate policy. Our job is not to influence intelligence in any way for political reasons. Our job is to present the truth to make policy decisions about where we go and i will not tolerate. I will not tolerate anything that falls short of that standard. Thank you. Chairman raised the issue around the current law in terms of the u. S. Army field manual on interrogation. I would simply point out that everyday in one form or another the military deals with some form or another the socalled ticking time bomb scenario and i believe that general mattis is appropriately pointed out that he would not stray and from the socalled enhanced techniques just dont work. I would hope that you would echo again what you said in the last that you would commit to following the law and not lead some effort to try to change that law. I can absolutely say that i have no other obligation except to follow the law. I greatly respect the views of john mccain who not only understands this but his work and subject to it and general mattis, years and years of experience, i respect both of those and i intend to be available to work with them and talk with them. But the goal is clear, 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. You sat right here for all the time that you did and i know what your Decision Making is like. You and i wrestled with tough decisions we had to make and i know what your analysis is like and i have absolute confidence. I think it was a great appointment by the president. Thank you and especially thank marcia for agreeing that you could do this job. We appreciate it. America appreciates it. Thank you for your willingness. As a comment, ive been sitting here looking that empty chair. Who died . Yeah. Thats senator rubios chair now. Oh, sorry. Im not going to comment. I hope hes not watching on cspan. He will show up through the door. Im not commenting on the trade made here. Again, thanks so much. And as you know, they are remodeling your office next to mine on the fourth floor in russell and man, its a mess. I wish you hadnt had left. Are you able to seize the new room on the other end there . No, i wasnt. That doesnt mean i didnt try. Maybe can i help you. Thank you. Thank you. Senator wyden . Thank you mr. Chairman. Good to see my former finance Committee Partner in the cause of bipartisan tax reform. I was a little baffled in references to football since hoosiers are about my game, basketball. But we will talk about that another time. In january 2017 there was a written assessment that Vladimir Putin and russian government developed a clear preference for president elect trump. Given putins preferences, how are you going to actually show our allies with elections coming up that the Intelligence Community will support them against russian efforts to insolence derelictions. Well, russia has a long history of doing this. Though they stepped up their game and use more sophisticated tactics. As i also said, i have seen the classified version of this, but it is publicly known, acknowledged and accepted that russia definitely did try to influence the campaign. To what extent, i dont think we know. But following through on that in terms of forming our allies of what we have experienced and what they will experience gives them i think 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 that when they make their judgments about future, whether future elections or whatever, there are outside forces trying to influence him one way or another. I think this should be looked at carefully and there needs to be, frankly, a response. Vice president pence, i read his remarks and he said there needs to be consequences for what they are trying to do. What i hope well see is that because people are concerned that what happened to us will happen to them, that you will make intelligence sharing with these countries a priority. I think thats already being done. And needs to be done. I wanted to hear it from you. But we will move on. You have said that if youre confirmed, the reauthorization of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act would be your top legislative priority. For years, i and members of congress, have been asking for an estimate of how many innocent lawabiding Americans Communications are getting swept up in this collection. Will you commit to getting this number to this committee and the public before reauthorization . Yes, i do. I will do everything i can to work with admiral rogers in nsa to get that you number. Ive been told it is an extremely complex process for a number of reasons. As i said, without classification, i dont know what all these reasons are. I need to learn what they are but i also need to share with admiral rogers the need, i think, to get this committee, not just those numbers, but all of the information they need, in which to make a judgment as to the reauthorization. The Intelligence Community believes that reauthorization is extremely important. It is a program that has provided a significant amount of intelligence relative to what Foreign Agents or individuals are trying to do to harm americans. And so, you know, it has layers of oversight at all three levels of government. Has been examined by the privacy Civil Liberties board, overseeing board, and supported by the fisa court. But this something you will be going through this next year and we will make sure you have all of the information you feel you need make adjustments that congress decides to make. So you will commit to making sure we have the number of innocent americans being swept up before reauthorization. Will you commit to declassifying any secret legal interpretations related to fisa as well . Thats something that ill 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 it has taken so long and what are the complications in getting that number. I think its important for the committee this is declassification. Well you mentioned the number also. But on declassification, as long as it doesnt i mean, declassification process is in place so that we can, if there are sensitive sources and methods that could be exposed, that have negative consequences to our intelligence agency, we have to declassify those. But those we can declassify for, for the needed purpose, i think we need do. Mr. Chairman, if i could take a few more seconds, as you did. My point is, and i appreciate what senator coats is trying to say here. A, we need that number. We have sought it for years and years. More and more americans are getting swept up in the searches. We are trying to go after foreign targets that are a threat us to. But as Telecommunications Systems become globally integrated we get more and more lawabiding citizens swept up. We need that number and declassification. Look forward to working with you. Thank you. Senator collins. Thank you. Welcome back, senator coats. Were delighted to see you. Along with former senator Joe Lieberman of the 2004 law that created the director of National Intelligence, i have a special interest in your nomination. Im delighted that the president has chosen you for this important position and i believe that 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 prince pam intelligence adviser to the president , im concerned about reports that the president is changing the composition of the socalled Principals Committee on the National Security council by adding his chief strategist and downgrading or so it appears, the role of the director of the National Intelligence. How will you ensure that you can fulfill the statutory mandate to serve as president s top intelligence adviser at National Security Council 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 as part of the Principals Committee. It was drafted on before, by the president bushs administration before the dni was even stood up. And so they took language from that. Never intending, not to have the dni be a part of the Principals Committee. I have been reassured time and time and time again from the president to his advisers that i welcome and needed and expected to be a part of the Principals Committee. It is essential to the process of being in a position to know what is moving on up to the National Security council relative to the team. I have great confidence in general mcmaster in terms of his putting together a team that he knows will be one of the most effective teams that he can. And i think relative to who is added or not added to that team will be under his jurisdiction and that as i said, i have very great confidence that he will put the team this place that i thinks can best serve the president. Thank you. Thats very reassuring since i cant imagine having the deputy dni on the deputys committee then not having the dni on the Principals Committee. Which needs to resolve issues that are of the highest level that the deputies could not resolve. And certainly the president should want to have his principal adviser on Intelligence Matters present at those very important meetings. And i was ensured that was the intent. And the other was just a mischaracterization of the order. Thank you. The second thing i want to raise with you is that President Trump asked an individual who runs a private equity firm to lead a broad review of the u. S. Intelligence agencies. As far as i can tell, this individual does not have National Security experience nor does he appear to have experience in intelligence. As youre well aware, the president can receive independent advice from the intelligence board which can provide outside advice regarding a full range of intelligence activities. So to have that additional review, particularly from an individual who doesnt appear to have the requisite background appears to be textbook definition of waste and duplication. In addition in your statement you talked very eloquently about the responsibility of the dni has to bring the intelligence agencies 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 arm chair 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. Ive made that clear to the president and to his advisers that that is where i stand. Clearly, as i said in my Opening Statement, every agency needs to consciously review itself, particularly at a time when Budget Resources are restrained. At any time. Whether they are or not. We want an efficient and 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 that i needs to be under my authority. I made it very clear. And i believe thats what case will be. I know mr. Feinberg personally. I think he is a patriot. He wants to serve his country. He brings many talents to that. I dont think that translates into reporting to the white house. And that being under the control of the National Security office. Sorry. Im just the dni, which i i ought to have that down pretty well, dont you think . So i want to just assure you that thats an issue i have been engaged in and i have full confidence thats the way itll turn out. Thank you very much. And i wish you all the best. Thank you. Senator . Welcome back, dan. Thank you. I want to go back to a couple of the some of the ground that senator collins covered. I think that most of us agree with your analogy and want you to be head coach. Were a little concerned that sometimes the owner of the team may rather hear from the offensive coordinator right now. So some things with regard to the executive order with regard to mr. Feinberg, the appointment of the director of the cia, to the committee, they open a lot of questions for how youre going to maintain dnis leadership role and structure that has served the Intelligence Community so well after a period when we realize stove pipes do not help american National Security. So i want to make sure i understand what you said to senator collins. Do i understand that the executive order that came out that seemed to remove the dni from the Principals Committee was a recycled Bush Administration executive order that doesnt reflect current law and historical precedent thats my understanding. I wasnt there, of course, at the time. In the writing of that, i had no participation in that. That is my understanding. I cannot fully say that thats what exactly happened. But what has been told to me is that the intent was never to not have the dni as part of the Principals Committee. They reassured me quickly that look, that they also are thinking that there may be occasionally the committee is meeting, dealing with something that doesnt involve intelligence. Perhaps a flood or Something Like that. I dont think any of us are worried about that sort of situation. We do want to be reassured one, reassured with regard to your position. Thats very important. Im not reassured to the process that these executives orders have been going through and given what i see as a pretty enormous omission. Let me move on to another issue with regard to encryption and weve had this conversation a lot when you were here on the committee. Something you have to deal with moving forward. Admiral rogers called encryption the foundation to the future. I think secretary carter called encryption absolutely essential. He said quote im not a believer in back doors or single technical approach to what is a complex and complicated problem. Im just not. I dont think thats realistic. I dont think thats technically accurate, end quote. Other former ic leaders, hayden, mcconnell, chertoff, mcconnell, a lot of michaels, all made strong support for encryption and unequivocal opposition to socalled back doors because of the risks inherent to them. Do you believe that strong encryption is an essential tool for the American Public and private sectors to protect personal business, Financial Data from hackers, criminals and malicious governments . Yes, i do. And i think it is important obviously for the government, all government entities, we are all aware of attempts to break into systems that deal with our defense, financial resources, any number of things. So encryption has a very positive effect and is needed. We also have though the responsibility of trying to understand what those who are not using the internet for the for the right purposes. We used to be separated by two wide oceans and felt we were pretty safe and we could always be ready for something coming our way. Now in a fraction of a second someone can hit a key and cause incredible damage to the United States and many, many ways all across the spectrum. So there are those occasions that i think when we need to at least think about, and when we have legal authority, to address situation where we need to get information, cooperation from the Public Sector would be helpful. And i think that conversation has been going on and needs to continue going on. And the ceos of companies that, you know, are making devices and guaranteeing their buyers encryption and they worry about their families and communities and attacks on the United States. Im not in a policy decision to decide how it happens but i think it needs to be an ongoing discussion 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, great to have you back and be on this committee with you and know have you an important and in many ways unique sense of these issues but also we have watched as a committee and as a congress the dni operation grow beyond what at least initially thought it would be. And im wondering, as youve had a chance to think about this, why do you think that has happened and how much of it is a result of the congress taxing the dni with specific assignments rather than letting the dni decide which agency should have that assignment for give me a sense of how you think thats developed and how your review of the other agencies would also involve review of what the director of National Intelligence and that entire operation under your daily management would look like . Well, ive been asking the same question. Ic in regards to this. I found that statutory requirements, executive orders, directives, have added functions to the dni that are mandated by the congress or by the 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 has tried 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 that they are familiar with the whole. And they can perform better service. And they arent stove piped. And it is under the efforts of what Goldwater Nichols was trying to accomplish. It is more complicated than just little more than just the number. There is 1750 people out there, why do we need that many . Those two factors played a major role in that. Having said that, it doesnt mean we cant take a hard look at this. How can we streamline . How can we be more effective . But simply taking a number of people here and putting them over there really doesnt change the dynamic if the reason that theyre here is for integration process, coordinating process, and so forth. So to finish my remarks, it simply if youre going to integrate information that is coming from 16 other different agencies, you have to have members there from some of those functions. That know whats coming from their functions so this they can be part of the integration solution. And you think congress has rightly or wrongly created all those specific assignments 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 over, have oversight . It is probably a good question for senator collins. I know senator lieberman and others put this together. Having 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 here and we have our staff write it up into law and from the starting point to the ending point we dont sometimes recognize it when it comes back with all of the decisions that have been made in order to make adjustments so certain entities have this authority and that authority. So there is some fog in the air. About the exact authorities of the dni and the responsibilities that are left to other agencies. Clearly an overseer, clearly te authorities of the dni and the responsibilities that are left to other agencies. And clearly overseer is someone who has defined authorities, but not necessarily the authority to simply go into the everying a agency to deal with their operations. I would clund by saying that on this topic, i think that nobody is in a better position to work with the relevant committees of congress to go back now and take a look at the law and what it was intended to do and whether it has really achieved to what it was intended to do, and the advice that you might have as you are looking at this from both perspectives of what the next dni might be able to deal with, because with of reforms and efficiencies that you have built in while you is this job, and i will look forward to you being part of the committees activities for the next several years. Thank you. It is 12 years on, and it is probably time to look at it and see what works and what doesnt and why and what changes to be made to make ut better. Exactly. I want that to be one of the things that you determine is going to be one of the major goals. That is one of my major goals. Thank you. Senator coates, i would take issue with the analogy, because i assure you that the assistant coaches of the new England Patriots would be a astonished to believe that Bill Belichick is as passive as you portray him. You have to be more aggressive, because this is not a passive role, senator. And let me move on to my only concern about your nomination. You are one of the most likable, affable easygoing people i have ever met. Like to traveling with you and working with you on this committee, but i am not like likability and affability are the qualities that i want in this position of somebody who is crusty and mean and tough, because you are riding herd on 17ing agencies that will always want to be going in different direction, and you are going be 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 this job, but that you are going to be hard in terms of the execution of this, i think, the second most important job in the United States government right now. Well, achieving at the level of Bill Belichick is tough, because i have not seen any other nfl coaches achieve the level of Bill Belichick, but but by the attitude and the success both. But i hear exactly what you are saying, and the Office Demands it, and the times demand it. Clearly, we are not in the passive situation from a world threat standpoint. Right. It has reached the level that we dont, we can not afford not to go at this with everything that we have. And to put a fine point on this, the three most worst mistakes were bay of pigs, and invasion of iraq and those were based on configure iing policy based on the demands of the policy makers. And just saturday the Trump Administration put pressure on the department of Homeland Security intelligence and analysis to come up with a justification for the travel ban rather than asking whats the story on people from this country, and 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 nit public media. Does it concern you . As i said in the beginning and will say frequently to the president and the executive branch, you need to fully understand my role. My role is to provide you with intelligence to formulate policy and not to provide policy and be a spokesman for any decisions made. Yes, i need to, and i have made it clear, and i will continue to make it clear. I cannot go outside of the bounds of my authorities. I believe those authorities require me to do nothing less than what i said. Quick yes or no answer. Do you need this job . No, i dont need this job. One of the benefits of being in your generation together, as i look at the panel here i dont know what you are talking about. [ laughter ] that is the right answer. You and i go all of the way back to the bay of pigs and vietnam, and we are experienced and if the we have not learned anything from these incidents then shame on us. That is right. And 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 doing something that i shouldnt, and i am not predicting that it will happen, but it could happen, and it is not about this president , but any other president as we have pointed out has happened over the last o40 years a. Coupe of questions of the National Security. I dont know where the language came from, but the instances of where where you are invited to where instances were for the expertise to be discussed in the dnis and u cannot imagine that s is the case. And you said, if it is a problem, it should be fixed, and you should not be welcomed at the meetings, but part of the meetings. I urge you the talk to the white house about this executive order that was issued barely a week after president was in office about correcting that fault and the second fault in that was to put steve bannon, the president s political adviser on to the National Security council. Im understanding that president bush forbid karl rove from fwog to the National Security meetings and let alone be on it. And i want you to say this is bad National Security from the begin, and it is a very bad practice. Thank you, senatoringsly take the message back to the president. Thank you. Thank you. Great to see you, dan. Senator kings concern, and i sat next to you here for a couple of years and i found him to be quite an unpleasant human being on a couple of occasions. Of course, everyone who knows you knows that is not true. We are fortunate and grateful for you to continue to be willing to serve the country. The three topics i wanted to touch is the unusual situation that we have now regarding the Counter Intelligence in particular, and the sort of the synergy that combines the strategic placement of illegally accessed information and the media organisms under government, r. T. And sputnik and the like. And there is an element of propaganda in the government, but the synergy of the propaganda and the Counter Intelligence for the purposes of interfering, and influencing and manipulating and direct iing th elections and policymaking in Foreign Countries has reached a level that in many places from in europe and i believe even in the United States is unique. You may have touched on it earlier, but it is a challenge that is perhaps a little bit different than what we have been dealing with in the Intelligence Committee in the past decade and certainly post 9 11 and not just that the Foreign Governments have intelligence agencies that are targeting us, but that in fact, they strategically use information to influence our policymaking and policies and even elections. And so with that dynamic, how do you view the multiple agencies to kind of synergizing that and confront the new element that we are still not fully understanding. Yes, the advances in technology have upped the games of those who want to use the techniques. And the digitization of the world through the links of the world wide internet have been marvelous advances for mankind, but they have extreme vul n vulnerabilities also, and can be taken advantage of. I think that we need to educate the public to the fact that these types of things are happening so that in their factoring in terms of the decisions relative to government and governments functions and elections and so forth is not, they are well aware of the fact that they cant just be simply believing everything they hear, and everything that they read. There are these efforts out there to undermine who we are as a country, and some of the values and cause us to lose confidence in the governments ability to protect their privacy and so forth. I do believe that requires much more agility and much better means of not only intercepting these, but putting the not only defenses in place, but the offenses response so that those who are doing this, and know that there is a consequence to what they are doing. I would add that given the fact that this kind of touches upon the Intelligence Community so heavily, there is always a tension of allowing the American Public, and for that matter, the allies to understand what is happening, and yet, allowing the Intelligence Community to continue to work in ways that does not divulge more than necessary. The tension is always there, and think that it is an important part of the element that we should take into can account moving forward. I think that in many ways one of the great defenses towards any of the efforts to interfere with the political process outside of the kcountry is to allow the American People to be as aware as much of possible of what the efforts entail so they understand the source and the motivation behind the things they are reading and seeing, et cetera, throughout the process. I am glad to hear you mention that and i believe it is a bigle challenge for the the entire Intelligence Community and you will have a key role to s synergize the agencies that service us in that regard. The second issue i want to talk isnt the detention policy. Im troubled by the direction it has taken. We know for a fact, and you have seen it in the open source reporting that a number of former gitmo detainees have gone on to continue the fight, and american citizens have been killed and out to fight with us now. And what is the view of the detention policy at the end of the last administration, and any views now about what you would advise the president in terms of what the detention policy is for terrorists or enemy combatants should be in the new administration . Well, i have had the opportunity to travel with senator burr and other committees, and him leading the contingent, and senator chambliss and senator feinstein. And these questions have been asked of the intelligence agencies in terms of what hasp happened to those who have been released from ga juan taun knua are they runninging a starbucks in yemen or rejoined the fight . A significant percentage have rejoined the fight. I know that we have a high value targeted of individual team in place that can look at this situation and make these determinations as to who may or may not be released. This is an ongoing conflict. And the last thing that we want to do is to tell the American People that we are sending somebody into becoming once again the adversary, and so i have been supporting of the detention which is i think done in a lawful way. And done in a humane way, and simply going to be sending everybody back home is not the solution to the problem. I know that i am out of time, but a point of clarify case, i believe that the last starbucks in yemen closed last week. But on a serious matter, Robert Levinson who is a former fbi agent disappeared from kish island in iran in 2007 and believed to be held by elements of the iranian government and he and his family from florida and i would ask in the new role that you pledge to do Everything Possible to helpp to locate bob and help to bring him home. Yes, and in my closing months of in the senate, i was also advised of someone else who is put in a similar situation and this one in turkey. We are, our office has been working to determine what the basis of this was and to try to get him released. So i am well aware of the situation from a more personal basis in terms of our needing to address these issues. Senator manchun. Great serving with you, dan, and great to have you back. Some tough questioning here and no question of what difficult period of the Intel Committee and im new to the committee and learning as quickly as i can. But people are depending on us, and senator king and myself and senator harris and i being the newest members on this side of the aisle are trying to get up to speed as quickly as possible. I think that i would first ask and the question was asked by the ranking member, would you be able to the turn over the miner information and make sure that there is access to the information and that is the intent . If we are getting what we are considered slowrolled, do you have the authority to make sure that we are going to have that access or any one of the 17 agencies that we need to conduct the full investigation . Yes, i hope i said more than intent, because it is my authority and obligation. You have the final yes and no. Yes, timely is part of the inves investigation, and need s s to given to you completely unvarnished. A lot of people are frustrated i have no intention of Holding Anything back to the committee and access that they need. And another thing, senator, when i look back at 2004 when the dni was created, who lost faith . Who lost the confidence and why did we believe that we needed the dni to be formed . Have you evaluated that . I have. And i have done some evaluation, and readings, and some discussions with the members and some of those who were part of the process from the beginning. I served with both senator lieberman and collins and know the role in this and others, and i they we didnt reduce any of the 17 agencies, we still have the same 17 agencies. No, we have the stovepipe process, and sharing information with each other the way they should, and no way to integrate it. Everybody put out their own and some of it dismissed and we have more faith in this agency than that agency, and it did not give you a complete picture. I view this as making a puzzle and you have 17 pieces that all need to come together. You want the input from those 17, and to be put in the right place, and you want it all to be coming together in one picture, and descenting views from one agency or another, and the confidence level of what the intelligence level is and you need to nknow that, and what th committee needs to know, and what the president and the customers in the executive branch need to know is that to the best of our ability, this sintegrated intelligence is provided to you by all of the 17 agencies pult pulling together all of the pieces of the puzzle 123w4r6789 you think that the 17 agencies believe that you have the authority or the dni has that authority to remove that director or take an extremely strong view by the president and others if they are not doing their job . Well, they are president appointed position. So. And they look at the dni as having that authority and that is who they are answering to and the boss . Well, collaboration authority, and other authorities and we had a discussion with that earlier about the, the initial views of those who are putting it together were for various reasons modified as it moved through the legislative process over the executive br branch, you know, coming in to make recommendations, and so forth. And do you believe in the position of the dni with the additional news media and the 24hour news media cycle going on and everything in the internet, and the socalled fake news, if you will, and does the dni have a responsibility to speak up and say, this is hogwash and no credibility whatsoever, for the American People the to know what is real and what is not . Well, we are to provide intelligence, and we can make analysis to provide to you and the policy makers, but it was mentioned earlier truth to power. Our job is to provide the truth. And the power goes to those people who are in a position to make those determinations, and make policy, and make kr corrections and make laws, et cetera. That is what we bring to you. Not that we are not spokesmen you dont believe that basically the socalled New York Times article of what side people should be on is something that dni should provide some clarity on . I dont envision myself going on cnn every night and saying, this is what we have done. I envision providing that information to the policymakers to allow them to make that decision. And dan, many leaders have identified china, iran, and others to be the top security threats and have you chose even one . Well, kind of an all of the above category given the dive e diversity of the threats that we have. I mentioned earlier on that cyber has moved quickly to the top in terms of, because of the affecting almost everything that we do in the country in terms of the people. Safety in terms of the financial, commercial and our national defense, intellectual property, and on and on you can go. One of the most capable that you are concerned about . You know, i would like to take that to the closed session. I have some strong thoughts aboutt that, but i believe it could potentially turn into something that needs to be done in the closed session. Thank you. Thank you so much, and thank you for your willingness to serve. Senator langford. Dan, it is absolutely great to see you againped a i am sure that you are enjoying to be on the side of the desk because you cant get up there to leave when you want to or come in and out, and take a quick phone call, because you are stuck right there. Yes. It is great to see you. And i do want to followup on a conversation that senator king had with you. I would say that i had the same line of questioning with you to close the loop on. You are one of the nicest people that i have ever met. Thank you. That is to your credit and not only the to your faith and your family, but the people that you have served for a long time. But i really want the dni to be able to be tough when it requires the be tough, and to be clear when there is time to be clear, because the policy makers around you need clarity, need straight forward facts and the facts that they know that they can trust. And we will deal with nice in the hallway when we grab a bottle of water together and have a chance to chitchat. But i need to hear clarification from you, again, that when the moment comes, and it is crunch time, you can be as tough as you need to be. James, i think that is, senator, sorry. James is always good. You said such nice things about me, and i fell into the friendship there. Senator, i absolutely understand that this role demands someone who can stand up to the pressures that are going to to be placed upon him, political pressures. We have 17 agencies and not everybody is going to be agreeing in terms of Going Forward and there needs to be a director who can assert that authority. I have been blessed to have mary scott who backs me up when with good wise counsel, but i recognize the need for that given the situation that we are facing world wide in terms of the threats. We dont have time just to be the nice guy, but we have to go after it. Yes. I have often said to people in my state who challenge me for being tough that i can say no with a smile and still be willing to standby it, but it is an area that you are pushed on. I will also say to you that some of the pressure is not just from the policy makers around you, but there is a tendency for all of us from the political world and the Intelligence Community to chase the priorities of the latest news story and headline, and that is the ic priority. For many in the ic community, they saw the cyber issue a long time ago. The media has only recently caught up so the real threats we face on cyber. So u one of the things that we need for you in the day ss ahea is to keep the agencies on focus of where where the real threat s are and not just where the headlines are. And a good for instance, it is amazing to me how little we talk about the narco ther errorism anymore, and we have tens of thousands of people dying through the trafficking of individuals of drugs or from the overdoses as a result of that, that are americans dying all of the time. And it is one of the constant threats that we have, but the news does not talk about it much anymore and it drifts to the background. You have the responsibility to to make sure that it does not driftt to the background among the Intelligence Community, and that we stay on focus on the threats that we face all of the time, and that when the issues come up, we are on top of them. And let me ask you a strange question for us, and when we have a chance to visit together, will we still be able to talk about the coates waste of the week, and still focused on an area that we need to resolve. You know as well as all of us on the dias that at times in working with the administration, if there are things that need to be fixed, there is some other entity that sees it, but the practitioners in the agency actually see the problem. We need help in the oversight part of it when you see something in the 17 entities or your own office, can you help us to be able to see some of those things as well to know what to fix legislatively . Yes, i went to some passion to the senate floor 55 times to address the certified waste of the week. And i have already looked around a little bit and said, hmm, maybe that fits a waste of the week category and lets investigate that. And obviously story, be confirm ed before i start that process, but i am committed to doing that. And i want to reflect on what you said about the narco terrorism, and you and i have talked about this personally. Each of us have experienced to families who have tragically lost a member of the family because maybe a 17yearold going to the party and somebody says, here, try this and they end up in the hospital and many of them perish, it is a scourge that is cutting across every part of the country. We have it in indiana and you have it in your state and every one of the members has it. It is something that cant be ignored or pushed aside. It is undermining the very essence of this country, and it is affecting families and communities in ways that, no, they have not made the headlines as much as they should, but it has to be a component of it, and intelligence does play a role in terms of how these things are brought into the country or within our country, manufactured. Thank you, dan. And senator harris. Senator coates, i enjoyed the time together, and thank you for that. I did, also. And so i know that many of my colleagues have raised the issue of the restructuring of the National Security council, and i would like to talk about that more, because i am sure that you agree it is critically important to what we need to accomplish in the area of National Security. The president s executive order was issued january 28th which 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 Meetings and the Principles Committee meetings. If confirmed as the director of National Intelligence, do you believe it is critically important to have a permanent role in those meetings . Yes. And have you requested of the president or any member of his administration that, that executive order be modified . We have sent them information as to the how to modify it. It has not been addressed it, but i have been reassured over and over and over by the president and the staff that absolutely, that is what their intent was, and they expect me to be there. And have they gaven you a date of when it will be modif d modified . Will it happen before your confirmation . They have not given me a date, and i cannot answer, do not know of a particular date. Now, i my understanding is that the cia drirector was, tha the executive order was modified on january 30th. Correct. And it was modified to include the cia director, is that correct . That is correct. So you mentioned earlier that the executive order was basically something from the bush era that ha hd been r reresuscitated, but it has been modified, do you agree to that . I believe it is the 30th, and i need to well, it has been modified since it was issued under this administration. No, it was not modified. When was the cia added to it . It is part of the original no, it wasnt. Part of the press conference. Okay. It was a press conference statement, and not action that was taken. Okay. Because i have a copy of it here. And that the it was added back to the National Security council, and the point is that this bush era document has been modified since it was issued to include the cia drirector, but t did not put back in ndi. I may be wrong saying that it is a bush era, and you indicated that is what the administration told you. I said that my understanding is that language was taken from a similar executive order issued under the Bush Administration and that order was issued before there was a position of dni. And i have been told verbally that the intent was not to leave a dni position off, that apparently someone drafting the language did not realize that language did not include the di because there was no di at that particular point in time. But the bottom line is, is that i have full 100 confidence that i will be part of the Principles Committee, and yes, the well, my concern is not on this point not about the qua qualifications. My concern is about what environment you are walking into. Okay. And 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 and not the joints chief and it has not replaced the position for which you are here to testifying. So my concern is that there is no indication or the assurance given that you will if confirmed actually be a member of the body. And id like the know from you, if 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 . I am fully prepared to assume the responsibilities. Even if the executive order is not modified . Yes, i am. I have been assured that i have the authority to be a member of that committee and be at that committee and every one of its meetings. Wouldnt you agree that 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 . Well, as i have indicated before, im going to be taking that message to the administration, and the question that was raised here. I am perfectly comfortable with it, because i trust them, and i believe what they have told me, and i intend to do this. But i i would be concerned, because, sir, they have also suggested that this came from the bush era and we know that there have been modifications since and i would be concerned, but i appreciate your service and candor. Thank you. Senator cotton. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and dan, and once again answering the call of service. And once again standing by dan answering with the call of service, and nice to have you back here and i con gragratulatu on the nomination. We have spoken some about the unique challenges and opportunities to trying to integrate all 17 agencies within the Intelligence Community that you will face as the dni. You are obviously familiar with them. You are familiar with the intelligence products they produce and each has, and any thoughts on what actions can can be taken in the short run to make that process work more efficiently and to produce coherent picture for the policy makers off what is happening in the world overseas in your role as the dni . Obviously, there is a lot that i need 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 that we face, we need to act sooner rather than later. I have always believed that getting the right people in place is what can best execute the doctrine in terms of achieving the goals that you want to believe to achieve. And so, we will quickly if confirmed move into that mode of filling that up. I did recognize earlier on that previous leaders of odni and the smooth transition that they have arranged by ensuring continuity of the gapperiod of time. But this is one of the this rises to the early responsibility. One of the original purposes of the odni was to take the disparate kinds of intelligence that is collect ced by the huma intelligence be it bank recors,s satellite imagery, e. T mail and telephone intercepts and synthesize all of them together to create a coherent picture, and that is an important function and still can play that function in part today. One thing that i have heard on occasion from my visits to the various agencies and in talking with the front line personnel is that the dni over time has imposed bureaucratic mandates on the agencies, and you know, reporting requirements, hr requirements and so forth. That get the core collectors or the analysts out of the business of core collection and analyzing and spend too much of the time focused on the fulfilling the bureaucratic mandates. Have you seen that in the preparation, and do you have any thoughtts about how you might focus the dni on the original mission, and keep the constituenting agencies of the ic focus canned on their original mission . Well, i havent had the enough experience to evaluate that. I will certainly take that as a issue to address, but i, without the confirmation, and the opportunity to engage with the other 16 agencies, except to begin to formulate some relationships with a few of them, and starting with the director of the Central Intelligence that we have had a number of occasions to, and talked to each other, and share what we think that the concers s are and what we think that we need to do, and that relationship sets up a very important relationship, and maybe the first important relationship, so we are working already to establish that. And finally, you mentioned the Rob Silverman commission in the Opening Statement, and this is an expert task recommendation for the quote sufficiently authorized, organized, equipped, trained and resourced, end qu e quote. What kind of lessons if any would you take away from the report of the Rob Silverman commission, and how applicable are those today realizing that we are a decade on . Well, not all of the recommendations were implemented and it is worth going back to look at the original intent, and then the reports from Rob Silverman and they made a number of recommendations, which were constrictive, but i think that 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 is a compromised piece of legislation like most legislation, and it was interesting that in the articles that i was reading they talked to a former directors at total of eight people who were in a position to make an an assessment as to what exactly the authorities of the dni were and eight different answers. So i think that alone is a signal that we ought to perhaps go back to look and see if the we want to make some adjustments to the law. Now that would have to be done in conjunction with the congress, of course. At some point, i think that at some point soopner rather than later that we need to look at. Thank you and again, congratulations. Senator coates, congratulation, and thank you for answering the call to duty once more and in particular to your wife, marcia, who has always supported you through the the Public Service, and this is a great continuing contribution and i expect nothing less from you, and so thank you for that. I wanted to ask about two subjects. One is basically to ask for your help in your new job once confirmed. I have become concern ed thed te Foreign Agent registration act which originally passed in 1938 needs to be updated. For example, we experienced in the time that Congress Passed a bill called the justice against sponsors of terrorism act that once Congress Vote unanimously to pass that, the president vetoed it and congress overrode the veto that a Foreign Government spent untold amount of money to try to lobby the United States congress, and it troubled me, because i am not sure that many people knew what the source of the funds or the source of the lobbying effort was. And it just strikes me as really important in light of the russian activities that are going to be the subject of investigation here that we look at the Foreign Agent registration act to see if it needs to be updated so that congress and the public can see where the money is coming from, and perhaps Foreign Countries and hiring lobbyists on kstreet to influence domestic legislation. Id like to ask for your help and the offices help for work on that. Well, you have that and want it to do that. And the more transparency needs to be offered to the public for relative to what this is and isnt. Absolutely. Absolutely. I want to go back to comment that was made by one of the colleagues or my friend from oregon who asked you to and others to produce the numbers of innocent americans swept up in intelligence gathering operation s. I just want you to talk, if you will briefly, about all of the various minimumization procedures to suppress incidental or inadvertent communications. Fis oft a first of all, it is illegal to targets an american citizen without a search warrant. That is correct. And so we are talking about targeting foreign intelligence persons overseas. 702 is specifically designed for that purpose. And by the way, i was the director of the fbi has recently as yesterday in my presence referred to 702 as the crown jewels of the Intelligence Community, and would you agree with that characterization . I would in the Intelligence Community, and they also see it that way, the entire community. And so we all saw what happened during the course of the debate over the usa freedom act which ultimately i voted for, but im concerned that we not let the debate of the reauthorization of the section 702 get caught up in the same sort of the hysteria, and where some people were worryied that the government was spying on them, when that decidedly was n untrue. But that is history, and i want to make sure that the importance of 702 in regard to the surveillance act that we make sure that everything is possible first to educate everyone so they understand what is authorize and what is not authorized and then to work with the congress to come up with an orderly way to make sure that the crown jewels of the Intelligence Community, and this section 702 is authorized. I want people to understand that that people are not targeted even overseas without the Court Approval and there is judicial review from time to time. There is oversight, and review within the executive branch and heaven knows there is a lot of oversight here in the congress over this. As well as in the various intelligence agencies themselves, and there is layers of protection to make sure that no american has to worry about their own government spying on them, and in fact, every conceivable effort is made to prevent that and protect the privacy rights of americans which we all agree is important. So i ask for your continued help, and obviously, you know a lot about the topic, but given this particular importance of the reau ththorization of the section 702 of 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 the privacy rights which we all agree are important, but the National Securityt that exactly the right balance is struck. Well, senator, i could not agree with you more. And my colleagues have heard me talk on the when i was a member of the committee of finding that balance. I think that from one end of the spectrum to another, we are all on the same page and cherish the private rights in this country, and they are constitutionally provided to us, and we want to make sure that those private rights are secure, but 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 it is through the sib e or through any of the number of other ways that the United States is vulnerable to attack. And they want us to provide and do everything that we can to keep them safe. And 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 that is important the find the ball lance point to accomplish both of those. 702 is designed to go after foreign bad guys. It is lawful collection. And so in that process, there is some incidental what is called the incidental names of the americans, and potential names of the americans, and some bad guy might have on his laptop the names of 40 americans. And so if he is targeted for something, and all of the sudden 40 american names, and now we put a process in place in devising this law that there is a minization minimumization, and i wont go into all of the ideas of the minimumization, because others can explaint better, but it is a process that understands that we are not target iing these people. But incidentally they came up, because they were on this guys email. Or on the phone list. The level of oversight here is all three branches of government. It is significant to try to secure those prive acieprivaci l there is a query process, and all of these are authorized and under court review and oversight review, and so, this is such a critical tool that it deserves, i think, full transparency to the level that we can while still protecting the sources and classified methods and classified information, and we need to ensure that the public is not led into the situation where they think that they are, you know, in deference to the colleague there oregon, sweeping up and collecting information about them. That we trying to sort it out so that we can find out if the bad guy in syria or wherever is talking to someone in the united stat states, we would kind of like to know why they are talking. And so there are processes and rights to talk that down. And there are procedures to go to court. Yes, and the contents have to be secured and you have to show the probable cause and the court has to issued the warrant. Yes, all of that. I worried when i back home on the issue of the collection and metadata, and section 217 of the patriot act has been changed and so i was constantly asked by people at home, what about the mega data, and i said no, it is not mega, but it is meta, and they said, no no, they are listening in on the u calls. I asked Keith Alexander the head of the nsa and he said, well, if we were listening to everybodys calls we would have to hire 334 Million People to work 24 hours a day, and no, that is impossible. We are trying to sort out the good and the bad guys, and so that is done, and following the the law and a new system now, and it is up to the policy makers if they want to make adjustments to that, but the 702 is such a valuable tool regarding what foreign bad people are trying to do to americans that, i think that the Intelligence Community is feeling strongly about it. It is your decision, a we need to provide you with the information that you need to go forward with the program. Sorry, i got into the sermon mode. That is over the top and i used up your top. Your wife was giving you this. That wouldnt be the first time, richard. Senator wyden has asked for an additional question. Thank you, mr. Chairman. We need to clarify the 702 issue, because it is critical of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Lets stipulate that i and every member of the senate wants to go after the foreign threats, or as you correctly call them foreign bad guys. No question about it. What has happened, because communications have got tep ten sophisticate and globally integrated an indeterminant number of americans have their communications 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 the twopart question, i asked you if you would get the public the number of how many innocent law abiding americans are being swept under fisa 702 collection. You said yes. Then you went on to say that 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, and i mean, literally as you know from being on the committee, will you commit now to getting us a report every 30 days until we get this number. We need for reauthorization, and it goes right to the heart, frankly of how you do the balance that you are talking about. Foreign bad guys, absolutely. But, an indeterminant number of people are being swept up, because Global Communications are so fist ska so sophistica so, will you stay with the original answer of yes, you will get us the number of the innocent americans who are swept up before authorization, and that is yes and no and is the answer still yes . It is a yes or no . Senator, i cant answer that with the yes nor no, and i qualified the yes with you, and let me explain. I have qualified it, because it has been extremely hard to come up with that number for various reasons for which i dont fully understand. I said that i wanted to talk to the director rogers and nsa in terms of what is the problem here . Why cant we, and what is since my question is what is the right definition of in terms of the swept up and the numbers. So basically what i hoped that i said and i want to clarify the record for this is that i will do my best to work to try to find out if we can get that number, but i need first to talk to find out about why we cant get it, and i dont believe that anybody is trying to withhold it from you. And to the second part, will you commit now to getting us a response every 30 days until we get this question answered. Because, this is, has gone on literally and i say it to my friend, it has gone on for years, and it has been sort of one reason after another. These are lawabiding american, and will you report to us every 30 days until we get this answer, and this is a yes or no well, i dont see that as a yes no either until i find out if it is even possible. I mean, i can call up admiral rogers every 30 days and ask where are we, by i would like to first understand why it is, and what the issue is in terms of getting that exact number. I dont want to come up with a numb bertha once again tells the American People something that has happened. Nobody has come up with a number here, and we have had years of stalling on this, and this is a legitimate question, and you are a friend and i need to know the answer and need to know the answers to the questions before we have a vote in here, because this is central to your key priority which is reauthorizing 702 and you have me at hello on going after the foreign threats, but i am not there with the respect to the answers on innocent americans. Thank you, mr. Chairman. The chair would ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a letter to the committee, and senator warner and myself from the Electronic Privacy Center and without objection, and so ordered. Dan, one last question. Just to make it clear, the executive order which was National President ial security memorandum number two has not been amended since it was issued, correct . Absolutely correct. There was a question that it was not clear in my mind exactly how it was answered, and i just wanted to make sure that we cleared the record. I am glad that you cleared that for clarification, yes. At this time, the open hearing will adjourn, and we will reconvene in a closed hearing upstairs. [ gavel ]