Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said yesterday that the Intelligence Community (IC) will have to make “strategic decisions” about cutting costs and accepting “higher risks” as it faces another year of sequestration.
 |
| Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Photo: ODNI. |
“A lot of people thought [sequestration] was a one off–that we’d only do it for one year,” he said. “We made a lot of decisions the first year of sequestration thinking that it would only be one year. But now we’re told we can’t do that. We have to make some strategic decisions that will be more lasting.”
“I’ll give you a case in point: cutting margins from acquisition programs. Well, maybe you can get by one year doing that, but you sure can’t sustain it. That’s very, very difficult,” he said.
Speaking at the Intelligence and National Security Alliance’s IC Summit, Clapper said sequestration has affected intelligence abilities despite a false perception that the IC had been exempt from the cuts.
“We have not been nor will we be,” he said.
Although budgets for intelligence agencies are classified, Clapper said his office will not be taking a “salami slice” approach in which all programs are cut equally. Instead, the community will balance risk from cost reductions where appropriate.
“What this is really all about is identifying, accepting, and managing risk. We’re going to take in some areas a higher risk,” he said. “We in the intelligence community shouldn’t sugar coat that. That’s a fact.”
He said the tightening budgets will certainly affect the performance of the IC: “You don’t take those kind of cuts of that magnitude without giving up capability.”