Senators Lankford, King Urge President-elect Trump to Quickly Nominate Director of National Intelligence

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) and Angus King (I-ME), members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, today sent a letter to President-elect Donald Trump urging him to prioritize the nomination of the next Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and to select an experienced, collaborative individual who can advise on the nomination of other intelligence agency leaders. 

“A successful DNI makes the intelligence community more efficient, more collaborative, limits redundancies, and advances seamless information sharing across our intelligence agencies,” Senators King and Lankford wrote in their letter. “As members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, we strongly encourage you to nominate an experienced DNI that can serve these functions and build an intelligence community leadership team that will put a high value on collaboration.  Most importantly, if selected early, your DNI could advise on candidates for directors of the intelligence agencies he or she will work with most often.”

Lankford is the only Senator on both the Intelligence Committee and Homeland Security Committee.

A PDF of the letter is available here, and the full text is below:

November 17, 2016

The Honorable Donald J. Trump

The President-elect

1717 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC  20006

Dear Mr. Trump:

      Congratulations on your recent election.  As you undertake the important work of preparing for the presidential transition and your future intelligence team, we are writing to ask that you prioritize the nomination of the next Director of National Intelligence (DNI). 

      In response to the 9/11 attacks, Congress created the position of the DNI to serve as the head of the intelligence community and establish an integrated framework to promote a more effective intelligence apparatus for our country.  A successful DNI makes the intelligence community more efficient, more collaborative, limits redundancies, and advances seamless information sharing across our intelligence agencies. 

      As members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, we strongly encourage you to nominate an experienced DNI that can serve these functions and build an intelligence community leadership team that will put a high value on collaboration.  Most importantly, if selected early, your DNI could advise on candidates for directors of the intelligence agencies he or she will work with most often.

      Thank you for your attention to this important matter.  We look forward to carefully considering all of your intelligence community nominees.   

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