Date: 2013-07-23
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

I thank the chairman of the subcommittee and I thank the ranking member of the subcommittee. Madam Chair. let me. first of all. acknowledge the hard work that it takes to provide for the men and women of the United States military and to secure America. As a member of the Homeland Security Committee. I am well aware of the combined efforts. obviously. in the military and the line of demarcation between civilian. but we all are committed to the national security of this Nation. This amendment deals with the reduction in funding of the procurement Defensewide by $1 million. I want to give the good news. The good news is that this money would be put in deficit reduction. But I do want to acknowledge that one of the issues that we must address as we go forward in the collective intelligence agencies. as we have listened to some of the challenges that we are facing in light of the present status of the leaks that have occurred by an American citizen who was working in the capacity as a contractorthis impacts all of us. So as this $1 million would be submitted into the deficit reduction pool. I believe it is extremely important that we look very closely at the extended use of civilian contractors. the extended use of a budget that is responsible for 70 percent of the intelligence of this country. Now. I know that some of the contractors deal with issues that are not individual personnel. but are dealing with research and dealing with equipment. But I believe that it is important that we look at the question that resulted in the disclosure of leaked and highly sensitive classified information. and the continuing raising of concern of whether or not the national security of this Nation has been impacted because of the outsourcing of intelligence responsibility. In particular. I think we need to look at the outsourcing of determining top secret clearance. Obviously. the circumstances that resulted in the leaking is an individual that had an interesting resume. from the educational level of a high school GEDof which we respect and encourage people to complete their educationof the military service. and then on to top secret by a contractor who gave out top secret clearances. We hope that there was some kind of review. So my amendment is intended to highlight this issue. I would hope that as we proceed. that this question will. if you will. have the ability to slownot haltthe use of civilian contractors out of all of our agencies dealing with the issue of intelligence. We want to assure the American people that we are concerned about the protection of this Nations national securitycivil liberties as well. but also to prevent the leaks that have occurred. Let me conclude my remarks and let me just say that I hope this brings about a discussion that will cross jurisdictional lines of the Judiciary Committee. the Intelligence Committee. our appropriators. Lets fix this enormous use and reliance on these contractors outsourcing. Lets develop a highly trained group of Federal Governmental professionals committed. if you will. to the ongoing service to their Nation. Respecting contractors have the same loyalty. but I think it would be better. Mr. Chairman. if we can frame the utilization of contractors in such a way that we can be assured that everything that deals with the national security of this Nation will be protected. With that. I will withdraw the amendment.