ICYMI— Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, today delivered the following opening statement at the Committee’s confirmation hearing for the Honorable Walter “Jay” Clayton III to be Director of National Intelligence.

Senator Cotton’s full remarks may be found here and below.

 Good morning. This hearing will come to order. I want to welcome all of you to today’s hearing on the nomination of Mr. Jay Clayton to be the Director of National Intelligence.

Before we begin, I would also like to recognize the devastating loss we suffered over the weekend, and, on behalf of this committee, pay tribute to our former colleague, Lindsey Graham. Though Lindsey didn’t serve on the Intelligence Committee, as a former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he was part of our extended family, and he was obviously a champion for intelligence officers just as he was for our troops. He was a true partner on issues such as FISA, FBI, and DOJ oversight. Lindsey ensured that the intelligence community had the resources to confront our adversaries. Lindsey was a true patriot who led with courage, loyalty, and relentless optimism during his time both as an airman in the Air Force and in the United States Congress. In remembrance of Senator Lindsey Graham’s lifetime of service, I invite the members of this committee to honor our colleague and friend by living up to the example he set and carrying forward his love for God and for country. We also welcome his sister and new senator, Darline, whom we all had the occasion to meet yesterday and who I know will carry forward his legacy in a way that would make him immensely proud, as he always was proud of his younger sister.

Today’s hearing is an opportunity to consider Mr. Clayton’s qualifications. So, I’d like to welcome him and his wife, Gretchen, to the Senate Intelligence Committee.  Mr. Clayton, thank you for once again answering the call to public service. To your family and loved ones, including those watching from home, thank you for your support during this process. I want to state for the record that Mr. Clayton has provided answers to our standard, 40-page committee questionnaire; he has answered in writing more than 200 advance questions for the record as well; he has completed his FBI background investigation; he has met with most members of this committee; and he has provided more than five years of tax returns. This is no small feat, but was helped, in large part, by the fact that this was his third time through the process. I want to thank all of those persons and organizations who worked to move his nomination at very fast speeds; that includes our committee staff, the staff at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, the Office of Government Ethics, and the White House counsel’s office.

I’d also like to offer my prayers to outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s husband, Abraham, as he battles cancer, and thank Ms. Gabbard for her efforts to streamline the ODNI as she turns understandably to her husband’s care. This committee is grateful for her decades of service to the country, both in uniform and as a civilian.

I’d also want to take a moment to thank Bill Pulte for his leadership to date as Acting Director of National Intelligence. The additional steps he’s taken to right-size the office of the DNI will help Mr. Clayton be successful on day one of assuming this position. Mr. Pulte has been highly communicative and engaged with me and my staff throughout his tenure, for which I am grateful.  

Mr. Clayton, it is my understanding that you intend to finish Ms. Gabbard’s work to return ODNI to its original size, scope, and mission. I have long said that the right number of staff at ODNI would number in the dozens, maybe a couple hundred at maximum, but certainly not the thousands of recent years. Congress intended ODNI to be a lean and efficient organization to keep bureaucratic intelligence agencies at bay. But some twenty years later, the ODNI has unfortunately become yet another bloated agency that incentivizes bureaucratic make-work as opposed to genuine intelligence work.

Mr. Clayton, given your many years as a seasoned professional in public and private practice, I’m eager to hear how your experience will inform your plans to return the ODNI to those roots. I look forward to working with you to provide any legislative relief that you deem necessary—such as transferring centers or functions to other government agencies because while many functions that are necessary occur at the ODNI, they don’t necessarily need to be occurring there.  Additionally, I am interested in hearing about your efforts to advance America’s national security in your current role as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

As U.S. attorney, Mr. Clayton has gone after some of the worst of the worst national security threats, including foreign enemies who put innocent Americans at risk and have American blood on their hands. For example, he has overseen the indictment of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, secured the guilty plea of Venezuelan general Hugo Carvajal, and overseen the prosecution of an Iran-backed terrorist connected to multiple attempted terror attacks in the United States. Though these are just a few high-profile cases, let me state for the record that Mr. Clayton has worked hand in glove with our intelligence agencies and counterterrorism personnel to lock up criminals who threaten our national security.  I commend him and all those involved for this important work. I’m interested in hearing from the nominee how he plans to apply this experience as the leader of the intelligence community.

Mr. Clayton, in addition to streamlining the ODNI, foremost on your to-do list will be helping refocus the intelligence community on operations by being a vocal and uncompromising advocate for its resources. If confirmed, I’ll expect you to make the case to the Intelligence and Appropriations Committees for why the funding requests in a supplemental are so vital. As most of us know, intelligence community operations are at an all-time high with great successes, and while the Pentagon received money from the Working Families Tax Cut, the intelligence community did not. I’ll say here publicly what I wrote to Acting Director Pulte and Director Ratcliffe last month—I do not want to see any more reprogramming requests that borrow from one operational account to fund another. There are plenty of underperforming and under-executing programs across the intelligence community that can be the bill payer for needful operations until Congress can pass supplemental appropriations bills. 

Now, before I turn it over to the Vice Chairman, I’d like to put on the record that in all my experiences with Mr. Clayton, his reputation as someone who operated with morality, decency, and integrity has proven to be true. The job Mr. Clayton has been nominated for today is not one which is sought, but one which he has been gracious enough to take on. I’m confident that by the end of today, my colleagues will join me in seeking to get Mr. Clayton’s nomination over the finish line.

I now recognize the Vice Chairman for his opening remarks.