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Director of National Intelligence
Seal of the Director
Incumbent Dan Coats since March 16, 2017
United States Intelligence Community
Member of	Cabinet National Security Council
Reports to	President of the United States
Seat	Washington, D.C.
Appointer	The President with Senate advice and consent
Constituting instrument	50 U.S.C. § 3023
Precursor	Director of Central Intelligence (CIA)
Formation	April 22, 2005
First holder	John Negroponte
Deputy	Susan M. Gordon, Principal Deputy Director
Website	www.dni.gov

The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) is the United States government Cabinet-level official—subject to the authority, direction, and control of the President of the United States—required by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to:

• serve as head of the sixteen-member United States Intelligence Community,


• direct and oversee the National Intelligence Program; and


• serve as an advisor, upon invitation, to the President and his executive offices of the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council about intelligence matters related to national security.

The Director produces the President's Daily Brief (PDB), a top-secret document including intelligence from all the various agencies, given each morning to the President of the United States.^[1] The PDB is seen by the President and those approved by the President.

On July 30, 2008, President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13470,^[2] amending Executive Order 12333 to strengthen the DNI's role.^[3] Further, by Presidential Policy Directive 19 signed by Barack Obama in October 2012, the DNI was given overall responsibility for Intelligence Community whistleblowing and source protection.

Under 50 U.S.C. § 403-3a, "under ordinary circumstances, it is desirable" that either the Director or the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence be an active-duty commissioned officer in the armed forces or have training or experience in military intelligence activities and requirements. Only one of the two positions can be held by a military officer at any given time. The statute does not specify what rank the commissioned officer will hold during his or her tenure in either position.

Coats being sworn in as Director of National Intelligence by Vice President Mike Pence on March 16, 2017.

The DNI is appointed by the President and is subject to confirmation by the Senate, and serves at the pleasure of the President. The current DNI is Dan Coats, who was nominated for the office on January 5, 2017, by then-President-elect Donald Trump.^[4] The DNI and Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence both resigned with effect on January 20, Trump's Inauguration day. Pending Coats' confirmation, Mike Dempsey was acting DNI from January 20, and became a member of President Trump's Cabinet on February 8,^[5][6] the first time that the DNI was a Cabinet-level position. The United States Senate Intelligence Committee held Coats' confirmation hearing on February 28,^[7] which approved Coats on March 9, by a 13–2 vote.^[8] The Senate confirmed his nomination with an 85–12 vote on March 15, and he was sworn into office the next day.^[9]

History

Founding

Before the DNI was formally established, the head of the Intelligence Community was the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), who concurrently served as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The 9/11 Commission recommended establishing the DNI position in its 9/11 Commission Report, not released until July 22, 2004, as it had identified major intelligence failures that called into question how well the intelligence community was able to protect U.S. interests against foreign terrorist attacks.

Senators Dianne Feinstein, Jay Rockefeller and Bob Graham introduced S. 2645 on June 19, 2002, to create the Director of National Intelligence position. Other similar legislation soon followed. After considerable debate on the scope of the DNI's powers and authorities, the United States Congress passed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 by votes of 336–75 in the House of Representatives, and 89–2 in the Senate. President George W. Bush signed the bill into law on December 17, 2004. Among other things, the law established the DNI position as the designated leader of the United States Intelligence Community and prohibited the DNI from serving as the CIA Director or the head of any other Intelligence Community element at the same time. In addition, the law required the CIA Director to "report" his agency's activities to the DNI.

Critics say compromises during the bill's crafting led to the establishment of a DNI whose powers are too weak to adequately lead, manage and improve the performance of the US Intelligence Community.^[10] In particular, the law left the United States Department of Defense in charge of the National Security Agency (NSA), the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). (The limited DNI role in leading the US Intelligence Community is discussed on the Intelligence Community page.)

Appointments

The first Director of National Intelligence was US Ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte who was appointed on February 17, 2005, by President George W. Bush, subject to confirmation by the Senate. It was reported that President Bush's first choice for DNI was former Director of Central Intelligence Robert M. Gates, who was serving as president of Texas A&M University, but who declined the offer.^[11] Negroponte was confirmed by a Senate vote of 98 to 2 in favor of his appointment on April 21, 2005, and he was sworn in by President Bush on that day.

On February 13, 2007, John Michael McConnell became the second Director of National Intelligence, after Negroponte was appointed Deputy Secretary of State.

Donald M. Kerr was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence on October 4, 2007, and sworn in on October 9, 2007. Kerr, from Virginia, was most recently the Director of the National Reconnaissance Office, and previously the Duty Director for Science and Technology at the US CIA and earlier in his career the Assistant Director of the Justice Department's FBI.

Declan McCullagh at News.com wrote on August 24, 2007, that the DNI site was configured to repel all search engines to index any page at DNI.gov. This effectively made the DNI website invisible to all search engines and in turn, any search queries.^[12] Ross Feinstein, Spokesman for the DNI, said that the cloaking was removed as of September 3, 2007. "We're not even sure how (the robots.txt file]) got there" – but it was again somehow hidden the next day. Another blog entry by McCullagh on September 7, states that the DNI site should now be open to search engines.^[13] This explanation is plausible because some software used for web development has been known to cause servers to automatically generate and re-generate robots.txt, and this behavior can be difficult to turn off. Therefore, if the web developers working for the DNI had tried to solve the issue by simply removing robots.txt, it would have looked like it worked at first, but then fail once the server had undergone a self-check for the robots.txt file.^[14] robots.txt has been configured to allow access to all directories for any agent.

In September 2007, the Office of the DNI released "Intelligence Community 100 Day & 500 Day Plans for Integration & Collaboration". These plans include a series of initiatives designed to build the foundation for increased cooperation and reform of the U.S. Intelligence Community.^[15]

On July 20, 2010, President Obama nominated retired Lt. (three-star) Gen. James R. Clapper for the position. Clapper was confirmed by the Senate on August 5, and replaced acting Director David C. Gompert. The prior DNI was retired Navy four-star admiral Dennis C. Blair, whose resignation became effective May 28, 2010.^[16]

Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI)

The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 established the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) as an independent agency to assist the DNI. The ODNI's goal is to effectively integrate foreign, military and domestic intelligence in defense of the homeland and of United States interests abroad.^[17] The budget for the ODNI and the Intelligence Community for fiscal year 2013 was $52.6 billion^[18] and the base request for fiscal year 2014 was $48.2 billion.^[19] The Military Intelligence Program (MIP) base budget request for fiscal year 2014, excluding overseas contingency funds, is $14.6 billion, which together with the NIP, comprise an Intelligence Community budget request of $62.8 billion for fiscal year 2014.^[20] The ODNI has about 1,750 employees.^[21]

On March 23, 2007, DNI Mike McConnell announced organizational changes, which include:

• Elevating acquisition to a new Deputy DNI position


• Creating a new Deputy DNI for Policy, Plans, and Requirements (replacing the Deputy DNI for Requirements position)


• Establishing an Executive Committee


• Designating the Chief of Staff position as the new Director of the Intelligence Staff

The ODNI continued to evolve under succeeding directors, culminating in a new organization focused on intelligence integration across the community. The ODNI has six centers and 15 Offices that, together with the centers, support the Director of National Intelligence as the head of the Intelligence Community (IC) in overseeing and directing implementation of the NIP and acting as the principal advisor to the President, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council for intelligence matters related to national security. The six ODNI centers include:

• Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA)


• Information Sharing Environment (ISE)


• National Counterproliferation Center (NCPC)


• National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC)


• National Intelligence Council (NIC)


• Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive (ONCIX).

ODNI organization

The ODNI is divided into core, enabling, and oversight offices. The Principal Deputy Director (PDDNI) to the DNI, in a role similar to that of a Chief Operating Officer, oversees operation of ODNI offices, manages Intelligence Community (IC) coordination and information sharing, reinforces the DNI's intelligence-integration initiatives, and focuses on IC resource challenges.

Core mission

The core mission functions of the ODNI are organized under the Deputy DNI for Intelligence Integration (DDNI/II). The DDNI/II facilitates information sharing and collaboration through the integration of analysis and collection, and leads the execution of core mission functions. These include:

• Integration Management Council


• National Intelligence Council


• Mission Integration Division


• National Counterterrorism Center


• National Counterproliferation Center


• Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive

Mission enablers

Mission enablers include policy, engagement, acquisition, resource, human capital, financial, and information offices.

Oversight

Oversight offices include the General Counsel, civil liberties, public affairs, Inspector General, Equal Employment Opportunity, and legislative affairs functions.^[17]

Directors

Status

No.	Director		Term of Office	President(s) served under
Position succeeded the Director of Central Intelligence
1		John Negroponte	April 21, 2005 – February 13, 2007	George W. Bush
2		Mike McConnell	February 13, 2007 – January 27, 2009
3		Dennis C. Blair	January 29, 2009 – May 28, 2010	Barack Obama
–		David Gompert Acting	May 28, 2010 – August 5, 2010
4		James R. Clapper	August 5, 2010 – January 20, 2017
–		Mike Dempsey Acting	January 20, 2017 – March 16, 2017	Donald Trump
5		Dan Coats	March 16, 2017 – present

Directors by time in office

• 
  List does not include Acting Directors.
  

Line of succession

The line of succession for the Director of National Intelligence is as follows:^[22]

1. Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence


2. Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Intelligence Integration


3. Director of the National Counterterrorism Center
   


4. National Counterintelligence Executive


5. Inspector General of the Intelligence Community

Subordinates

Principal Deputy Directors of National Intelligence

Director of the Intelligence Staff/Chief Management Officer

Intelligence Community Inspector General

Deputy Directors of National Intelligence

Assistant Directors of National Intelligence

Assistant Deputy Directors of National Intelligence

See also

References

External links

• 
  Official website


• 
  The National Counterproliferation Center at the Wayback Machine (archived April 28, 2015)


• The National Counterterrorism Center


• The National Counterintelligence Executive


• Program Manager for the Information Sharing Environment


• Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004

Articles

• U.S. News & World Report: First line of Defense: Inside the Efforts to Remake U.S. Intelligence


• Fact Sheet: Real Progress in Reforming Intelligence


• The Washington Post – December 29, 2006: DNI Awards $2 Million in Hush-Hush Money


• The National Security Archive: From Director of Central Intelligence to Director of National Intelligence


• U.S. National Intelligence: An Overview 2013