Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is cutting her office's staff by around 40%. ODNI had approximately 2,000 people working for it in February, but the downsizing will bring the agency's headcount down to around 1,300 employees.

Washington

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is implementing a significant reduction in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) workforce, cutting staff by approximately 40 percent. After the downsizing, the agency will retain around 1,300 employees, down from about 2,000 earlier in the year. 

The decision is attributed to efforts to reduce costs, address concerns about bureaucratic expansion, and streamline the agency's focus. Several ODNI components will be eliminated, including the Foreign Influence Center, the National Intelligence University, and a biosecurity and counter-proliferation center. While these changes are expected to save costs, experts note they may also diminish the agency's ability to integrate intelligence on key issues.

Tulsi Gabbard cutting ODNI staff by around 40%

Welcome back. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is cutting her office's staff by about 40 percent. The agency's headcount will still be around 1,300 after this downsizing. ODNI, that's what it's called here in DC, had approximately 2,000 employees in February. CBS News national security contributor Samantha Vinograd joins me now. Sam, always great to have you here. You know, even before this second iteration of the Trump administration, I read think-tank reports right and left saying ODNI had gotten way too big, huge mission creep. What is it doing? True? Fair? We are actually major almost 20 years in four months of the day when ODNI first opened its doors. April 22nd, I believe, 2005. Over the course of its history, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has grown in size, but I will note, so too has its mission. And this is where Director Gabbard is actually focusing part of the why she's engaging in this reduction. Reading instructions from Congress on what it should do? Not just from Congress. The president has a prerogative to set what are known as national intelligence priorities, to really identify what are the core intelligence issues the intelligence community should focus on in any given year. Those national intelligence priorities drive the budget. They drive resources. They drive focus. And every president has the discretion to set those, brief Congress, and move forward. The range of issues that our intelligence community is focused on has grown significantly since 2005, not to mention the capabilities we employ to just collect intelligence, including advanced technology. So I think one of the healthiest parts of our intelligence community is the ability for the director to look inward and to identify where change is needed so that the intelligence community stays agile and stays relevant. But Director Gabbard has given various reasons for why she's engaging in this reduction, including cost savings to reduce bloat and to get rid of the weaponization and politicization of intelligence. I remember when it was founded, the idea was to do something that was considered a rearview flaw pre-911. Too much siloing, not enough communication of what was being gathered, spread around all the agencies. Is that ODNI still its principal mission? It sure is. And the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 gave ODNI this mission to really integrate intelligence across the community. There are 18 organizations and entities that comprise the intelligence community. Many of them have similar focuses, but for different mission purposes. So you'll have a Department of Defense intelligence entity working on something that another entity might be looking at, but to support a different mission. The whole goal is to make sure everyone's talking to each other, that there are not redundancies, and that we don't miss a threat because one organization isn't engaging with the other. The other goal is to ensure continuity of operations, and that analysis is fulsome. That all the different perspectives from the intelligence community are presented in an intelligence assessment with various confidence levels. Quickly, does cutting the ODNI, meaning the director's staff, in any way hamstring these efforts? I think that ensuring that there are adequate personnel to effectuate integration across the intelligence community is critical. I will note that this cut in staff is actually doing away with certain parts of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, like something known as the Foreign Line Influence Center, which was very critical to reviewing election interference efforts by foreign nation states. It's doing away with the National Intelligence University. It is doing away with a biosecurity and counter-proliferation center within the ODNI. So you will lose that integration function on those particular issues. Not cost-free. Might be cost savings, but not cost-free. Sam Gunnery-Brent, always a pleasure.

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