tulsi odni cuts deep state
© Eric Lee/BloombergDirector of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard justified the changes as “the start of a new era” for the nation’s intelligence community.
Lawmakers are divided on the plan, which would eliminate hundreds of roles and save the ODNI more than $700 million annually.

As part of the changes, the agency will trim down the Foreign Malign Influence Center, which collects and analyzes data on foreign influence operations seeking to undermine U.S. democracy. ODNI says that the National Intelligence Council and National Counterintelligence and Security Center already carry out this work, and describes the FMIC as having been "used by the previous administration to justify the suppression of free speech and to censor political opposition."

The FMIC has historically worked closely with the State Department's Global Engagement Center, which was shuttered earlier this year over accusations of censorship.

ODNI said the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center was also deemed redundant because other offices in both the White House and the intelligence community also monitor cyber threat intelligence.

And the National Intelligence University — which offers degrees to intelligence officials — will be integrated into the National Defense University. Other offices within ODNI, including the National Counterproliferation and Biosecurity Center, the External Research Council and the Strategic Futures Group, will also see a reduction in their workforce.

Gabbard in a statement justified the changes as "the start of a new era" for the nation's intelligence community. Gabbard is pushing to ultimately scale down personnel and costs across all 18 intelligence community agencies by $1.3 billion annually.

"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, adding that she would ensure the IC and ODNI returned to its "core mission" to "find the truth and provide objective, unbiased, timely intelligence to the President and policymakers."

The announcement has divided intelligence leadership in Congress. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, praised Gabbard for the cuts. "Congress created the ODNI to be a lean organization that used small staffs to coordinate across the Intelligence Community and execute specific, important tasks," he said in a statement. "Today's announcement is an important step towards returning ODNI to that original size, scope, and mission."