ICYMI— Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, delivered opening remarks at yesterday’s confirmation hearing for Dr. Roger Mason, nominee for Director of the National Reconnaissance Office, and Mr. Michael Vance, nominee for Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research.
Senator Cotton’s full remarks may be found here and below.
Senator Cotton: Our goal for this hearing is to consider the nominees’ qualifications and give members ample opportunity for thoughtful deliberation.
Onto the business at hand, both Dr. Mason and Mr. Vance have already provided detailed, substantive, written responses to dozens of questions from this committee. Today’s hearing will give our Senators the chance to hear directly from the two nominees before us, who are both highly accomplished individuals with impressive professional records.
I want to thank Dr. Mason and Mr. Vance for their willingness to answer the call to public service once again. And I’d also like to thank their family members and loved ones—some of whom are here with us others of whom are watching from a distance—for their support during what can be a lengthy and grueling nomination process.
Our nominees today have many years of extensive experience in their respective fields.
First, Dr. Mason currently serves as the Chief Growth Officer for V2X Corporation. He also previously served as President of Peraton’s Space and Intelligence Sector and as the Assistant Director of National Intelligence for Systems and Resource Analyses. Because of Dr. Mason’s dedication and leadership, he has received the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the Intelligence Community Gold Medallion, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Medallion.
Dr. Mason, drawing on your experience across government and industry, in today’s hearing, I look forward to your thoughts on how the NRO can work with the private sector to leverage commercial imagery, broaden the industrial base to fix various launch issues, and address the problem of overclassification in space control.
Second, Mr. Vance currently serves as the Special Advisor to the Vice President for Asian Affairs and as the Senior Advisor to the Undersecretary for Political Affairs at the State Department. Mr. Vance previously served at the National Ground Intelligence Center, worked as a State Department Diplomatic Security Service Special Agent, and served as an analyst in the National Security Agency, during which time he completed details to the National Intelligence Council and the National Security Council.
Mr. Vance, given your current advisory roles in the Administration and your many years of analytical experience in the intelligence community, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the importance of providing policymakers with fact-based analysis and objective diplomatic reporting. As Chairman, I have focused this committee’s efforts, in part, on returning our intelligence agencies to their core mission of stealing foreign secrets. As you know, the Bureau of Intelligence and Research plays an important role in validating these secrets and comparing them to diplomatic reporting. I am eager to hear your views on this subject during today’s discussion.
Again, I’d like to thank our nominees for their many years working on behalf of the American people and for their continued willingness to serve our country in these new roles.
I now recognize the Vice Chairman for his opening remarks.
