Tulsi Gabbard to slash US intelligence workforce by 40%, cut budget by US$700 million
The intelligence community is ‘rife with abuse of power and unauthorised leaks of classified information’, the department’s director said
The Office of National Intelligence will dramatically reduce its workforce and cut its budget by more than US$700 million annually, the Trump administration announced on Wednesday.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said in a statement: “Over the last 20 years, ODNI has become bloated and inefficient, and the intelligence community is rife with abuse of power, unauthorised leaks of classified intelligence, and politicised weaponisation of intelligence.”
She said the intelligence community “must make serious changes to fulfil its responsibility to the American people and the US Constitution by focusing on our core mission: find the truth and provide objective, unbiased, timely intelligence to the president and policymakers”.
The Trump administration also has made sweeping cuts at the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which oversees the nation’s critical infrastructure, including election systems.