The restructuring of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has commenced, an initiative Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said will cut the agency’s size nearly in half by the end of fiscal 2025 and save taxpayers more than $700 million annually.
The effort, called ODNI 2.0, is intended to streamline operations, eliminate redundant offices and refocus the agency on integrating intelligence from across the 18 elements of the intelligence community, according to an ODNI press release published Wednesday.
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Created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the office was established to address systemic failures in the IC, but Gabbard said it has grown “bloated and inefficient” over the past two decades.
“ODNI and the IC must make serious changes to fulfill its responsibility to the American people and the U.S. Constitution by focusing on our core mission: find the truth and provide objective, unbiased, timely intelligence to the President and policymakers,” she said in a statement.
ODNI 2.0 Targets Redundancy
Several offices will be closed or consolidated under the plan. The functions of the Foreign Malign Influence Center, the National Counterproliferation and Biosecurity Center and the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center will be absorbed into the National Intelligence Council and ODNI’s mission integration directorate.
The National Intelligence University will be merged into the National Defense University, while the External Research Council and the Strategic Futures Group will be eliminated. Gabbard’s office said the SFG had neglected its purpose as the NIC’s strategic and long-range forecasting arm and instead produced analysis that conflicted with the current administration’s national security priorities.
ODNI said reductions already underway have cut more than 500 positions, representing a 30 percent decrease in staff.
Election Influence and Social Media
The Foreign Malign Influence Center, established to track efforts by overseas actors to influence the American public, came under particular criticism. According to ODNI’s fact sheet, the center coordinated with social media companies around election-related content and “may have been used to weaponize intelligence against Americans.” The office cited coordination with Twitter, Facebook and Google in October 2020, prior to restrictions on sharing the New York Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
More ODNI 2.0 Measures
The restructuring also includes changes to acquisition, workforce balance and counterintelligence. ODNI plans to streamline contracting for emerging technologies and accelerate the adoption of commercial tools. The National Counterterrorism Center will expand intelligence sharing with federal, state and local law enforcement, while the National Counterintelligence and Security Center will focus on security clearance reform and investigations of unauthorized leaks of classified information.
“Ending the weaponization of intelligence and holding bad actors accountable are essential to begin to earn the American people’s trust which has long been eroded,” Gabbard said.
