INTELLIGENCE REFORMS AT FBI GET HOUSE OKAY

Crime Control Digest, Jul 30, 2004

The House has approved the creation of a new Intelligence Directorate within the FBI to attract an elite force with responsibility for combat terrorism, gangs, cybercrime, child pornography and other types of sophisticated crimes.

The directorate would also expand the quality and value of intelligence shared with state and local law enforcement.

The Senate is expected to adopt similar legislation, which would allow organization and staffing to begin in the federal budget year that begins Oct. 1.

The House-passed bill, HR 4754, incorporates recommendations in another piece of House legislation, HR 4564, which provides the FBI Director with new, more flexible retention, recruitment and retirement authorities.

These new authorities will improve the FBI's ability to compete for highly qualified staff with the other members of the intelligence community and the private sector and extend the retirement age from 60 to 65.

In addition to the creation of an Intelligence Directorate and new, flexible personnel tools, the recommendation provides funding for more than 1,000 additional agents, analysts and support staff for intelligence and counterterrorism activities, along with additional funding to address issues such as child prostitution and gang-related crime.

The new directorate would be included within the House bill's total FBI budget of $5.2 billion-an increase of 14 percent above current spending.

The Intelligence Directorate would continue a transformation of the FBI from its primary mission of solving crimes before the 9/11 terrorist attacks to its new objective of crime prevention, which includes preempting terrorist activities.

Since the 2001 attacks, the FBI budget has soared from $3.1 billion to a proposed $5.2 billion-nearly 25 percent of the Justice Department's authorized outlays.

The funding increases have allowed the FBI to increase the number of Joint Terrorism Task Forces to 84; create the Office of Intelligence; participate in the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, the Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force, and the Terrorist Screening Center; hire thousands of new agents, analysts and support staff; create new training programs for agents and analysts; and upgrade information technology capabilities.

The bill establishes the executive assistant director for intelligence as head of the directorate and gives the directorate broad and clear authority over intelligence-related functions.

The directorate is charged with ensuring intelligence is shared across all FBI programs including counterterrorism, counterintelligence, criminal and cybercrime.

The House bill also instructs the FBI continue to expand its training opportunities and the capabilities of the College of Analytical Studies to ensure that agents and analysts are receiving the highest quality intelligence, counterterrorism and counterintelligence training available.

These training programs should include: joint training sessions with other members of the intelligence community; opportunities for an academic sabbatical to pursue an advanced degree; sending staff to the Department of State's Foreign Service Institute; and creation of a fellows program to exchange staff with other federal agencies and the private sector.

In addition, the bill calls for the FBI to expand both its basic intelligence analyst course and its advanced intelligence training courses offered at the College of Analytical Studies.

The FBI would also consider offering intelligence classes to other federal law enforcement agencies and the Federal Bureau of Prisons to recognize and thwart the introduction of violent ideology and extremism in federal prisons.

Inf.: HR 4754, HR 4564, http://thomas.loc.gov.