Securing our nation’s election infrastructure is a vital national interest that requires the commitment of our federal, state, and local partners. This is an issue that the Administration takes seriously and is addressing with urgency. That is why today we sought to enlist Congress’ help in working with state and local election officials back home to raise awareness of the potential threats and urge them to continue to use available resources, either from DHS, the FBI or a private, third party.

Last Thursday, I had the honor of swearing in Michael K. Atkinson as Inspector General of the Intelligence Community after the Senate confirmed his nomination last Monday. Michael is the second official to hold this position since its creation in 2010.

I am delighted my former Senate colleagues voted this afternoon to confirm the nomination of Gina Haspel as CIA Director.  Gina has clearly demonstrated that she is a person of high integrity with valuable frontline and executive experience as a career intelligence officer.  Her confirmation represents the best we have to offer as a country.  On behalf of the Intelligence Community, we salute Director Haspel, a trailblazer who today becomes the first woman to lead the CIA.

Today, consistent with the USA FREEDOM Act and the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017 (the reauthorized FAA) requirements to release certain statistics (codified in 50 U.S.C.§ 1873(b)) and the Intelligence Community’s Principles of Intelligence Transparency, we are releasing our fifth annual Statistical Transparency Report Regarding Use of National Security Authorities presenting statistics on how often the government uses certain national security authorities. Providing these statistics allows for an additional way to track the use of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) authorities and gives further context to the IC’s rigorous and multi-layered oversight framework that safeguards the privacy of United States person information acquired pursuant to FISA. The report goes beyond its statutory duty of providing statistics and further provides the public with detailed explanation as to how the IC uses these national security authorities.

WASHINGTON – The Intelligence Community is sponsoring a $75,000 prize competition to explore opportunities for artificial intelligence and other machine-based approaches to transform the process by which collected information is examined for credibility and uniqueness. The Office of the Director of Science and Technology within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence—in partnership with the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence—is launching its third challenge contest, “Xamine,” to explore AI-based opportunities for verifying collected information.