Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is overhauling her office to trim down its bloated bureaucracy and end the “weaponization” of intelligence for partisan purposes.
Gabbard announced Monday her plan to trim staff at the office of the director of national intelligence by 40 percent by the end of fiscal year 2025 and save taxpayers $700 million annually. The goals of Gabbard’s downsizing are to reduce bureaucratic inefficiency and reorient ODNI towards its mission of being an intelligence hub rather than a vehicle for “politicized weaponization” of intelligence.
“Over the last 20 years, ODNI has become bloated and inefficient, and the intelligence community is rife with abuse of power, unauthorized leaks of classified intelligence, and politicized weaponization of intelligence,” Gabbard said in a statement.
“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 added.
“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 is calling the re-organization “ODNI 2.0” and considers it the beginning of a new era for the agency. Her promise to downsize the agency and return it to its original mission was key in winning over moderate GOP Senators in her fight to get confirmed as director of national intelligence. Some Republican Senators were concerned about Gabbard’s history of leftist views and opposition to Trump.
Founded after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, its original purpose was to integrate intelligence across agencies and conduct oversight. Its mission has been expanded over the past two decades as it became a cabinet-level agency during Trump’s first term. The director of national intelligence is one of the highest-ranking U.S. intelligence officials and produces the president’s daily intelligence briefing.
As part of her overhaul, Gabbard is eliminating the ODNI’s external research council and strategic futures group, according to an agency fact sheet. The Biden administration created the external research council, and Gabbard’s office removed its brain trust for allegedly leaking information to reporters.
The strategic futures group was created to generate a global trends report every four years. Gabbard’s office believes the panel became a partisan vehicle and its 2025 report violated agency standards in its attempt to push a political agenda.
Moreover, Gabbard is refocusing the functions of four offices, the Foreign Malign Influence Center, the
National Counterproliferation and Biosecurity Center, the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center, and combining them with the ODNI Mission Integration and National Intelligence Council. Streamlining those offices and eliminating wasteful contracts and staff will generate a significant portion of the savings Gabbard expects to come from ODNI 2.0.
Likewise, Gabbard is preparing guidance to improve the contracting process for companies pursuing innovative technology and already doing business with the intelligence community. She hopes to promote innovation through public-private partnerships and the use of “cutting-edge technology.”
Consistent with the Trump administration’s broader agenda, Gabbard says she is prioritizing merit in the hiring process rather than fulfilling racial and gender quotas. Beyond that, Gabbard is promising to improve operations to ensure that timely and unbiased intelligence is being produced to inform policymakers.
“DNI Gabbard’s ODNI 2.0 initiative will reestablish trust in the IC, expose politicization and weaponization of intelligence, protect American tax dollars, and keep ODNI mission focused on protecting the safety, security, and freedom of the American people,” the ODNI fact sheet reads.
Gabbard’s workforce reductions come a day after she revoked security clearances for 37 intelligence officials for alleged participation in political activities, including the false claims of collusion between Trump and Russia.