Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas is leading the charge to reduce President Trump’s oversight over the intelligence community through his legislation – S.2202 – Intelligence Community Efficiency and Effectiveness Act of 2025 – that would severely reduce the power of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). This is part of Sen. Cotton’s ongoing crusade against DNI Tulsi Gabbard.
Under Sen. Cotton’s bill, the FBI and NSA would receive additional new powers and new authorities reassigned from the vastly-reduced DNI. This is being done to hamstring Director Gabbard’s important work in declassifying documents showing immense failures by the intelligence community that occurred throughout the Obama administration which had a cascading impact on the first Trump administration, tarring it with the brush of Russian collusion based on a pack of lies.
It is not a coincidence that Sen. Cotton is attempting to cripple Director Gabbard right as she announces her landmark investigations of Obama, his DNI James Clapper, his CIA Director John Brennan, his National Security Adviser Susan Rice, and other key officials with these seismic changes to the ODNI that would be implemented over the course of just a few months. Sen. Cotton’s devious scheme would put Director Gabbard’s important work in unearthing the origins of Russia-gate with hard, unassailable evidence in serious jeopardy.
The purpose of the ODNI is to coordinate intelligence across the various agencies and departments, giving any president oversight so they can understand what is really going on within the vast bureaucracy in order to make better more, informed decisions. President Trump and Director Gabbard have effectively used this her office to rein in some of these deep state thugs and uncover past crimes, including President Barack Obama’s illegal coup against our duly-elected President, Donald J. Trump. Without a Gabbard-run ODNI with its appropriate powers intact, there is no hope and no prospect for reform of America’s intelligence apparatus.
Other offensive provisions from Sen. Cotton’s bill are its Orwellian contorting of language to remove oversight from deep state entities. The legislation generally demotes ODNI key staff, cleverly allowing subordinate agencies’ staffs to outrank ODNI employees when they are searching for materials needed by the President or the Director. For example, Sen. Cotton’s legislation removes deputies and reclassifies them as “assistants.” He takes away “principals” and changes “directors” to “heads.” This would allow bureaucracies like the FBI and CIA to evade necessary oversight authority.
The legislation takes away various authorities and responsibilities over bio-threats, narcotics, and terrorism from the ODNI and hands them back to the existing intelligence community apparatus. In a particularly appalling and disingenuous provision, Sen. Cotton added in some redundant language banning DEI from hiring practices in an attempt to bait conservatives and the MAGA base into supporting his measure. These are policies that Director Gabbard already put into place on her first day on the job.
Sen. Cotton uses the rhetoric of government efficiency to justify his measure, but Director Gabbard is already making great progress in this regard. Director Gabbard is dedicated to meaningful and intentional reforms which reduces the DNI office by as much as half to reduce bureaucratic bloat. Sen. Cotton’s proposed legislation is irresponsible and guts the office to an extent which would give a substantial power grab to the FBI, NSA, CIA and the 18 separate intelligence-related entities under the jurisdiction of the ODNI that have been weaponized and managed from afar by the Obama administration.
Before Director Gabbard became head of the ODNI, the agency never uncovered or released the documents implicating Obama and his top apparatchiks in Russia-gate. It cannot be taken for granted how integral Director Gabbard’s role at the helm of the ODNI is when it comes to draining the swamp. If her authority is removed or she is neutered, this could prevent major changes and prosecutions that would put fear into the hearts of the deep state hacks, which is the only way to get them to stop their continuous plot of undermining President Trump’s agenda and the very constitutional order that guides the United States of America.
I am signing this letter because those of us who have endured immense persecution as part of this conspiracy perpetrated by the Obama administration and enforced by the deep state cannot sit idly by while Sen. Cotton’s subversive actions undermine the importance of the DNI’s work. This is an existential crisis for America, and how it is handled will determine whether America can be truly great once again. Director Gabbard must have all the tools at her disposal to expose this conspiracy and serve justice to its perpetrators and S.2202 MUST be defeated in the Senate.
