Testimony
of Robert S. Mueller, III, Director,
FBI
Before the Senate Appropriations Committee,
Subcommittee
on the Departments of Commerce,
Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and
Related Agencies
March 23, 2004
Opening Statement - "Information
Technology, Management, and Training"
Introduction
Good
morning Mr. Chairman, Senator
Hollings, and members of the Subcommittee. Before
I provide a few opening remarks,
I want to take a moment to thank you
for your leadership and strong
support of the FBI. The funding you have provided
has been critical to our mission
and our efforts to transform the FBI. Our
mission has changed dramatically
and our budget reflects this change.
Today,
as you have requested, I will focus
on the FBI's training, our management,
and our information technology.
Training
Relevant,
timely and effective training
is essential for each FBI employee. Since the terrorist
attacks of September 11, 2001,
the
new Agents curriculum has been
completely revised. Counter-terrorism and counterintelligence
training is now woven into
every facet
of our New Agents Training.
In fact, an additional week of training has
been added in order to accommodate
the expanded curriculum.
Our
Counterterrorism modules now include financial investigative
techniques, source development strategies, terrorist
groups, and domestic terrorism.
We have also developed a number of practical problems that have
greatly enhanced our counterterrorism training. For example,
we have developed white-collar
practical problems focusing on terrorist fundraising that enables
New Agent trainees to experience one of the means of
identifying and dismantling terrorist
networks before they strike. Of course, we also include practical
problems where the trainees must respond to a terrorist
event such as the release
of cyanide or anthrax. In the past, our practical exercises focused
exclusively on criminal applications, such as bank
robberies
and kidnappings. While these
remain an important part of our program, we have refocused our
training efforts to address our number one priority of
protecting
the United States against
terrorist attack.
We
have also expanded legal instruction to include application
of the U.S. Patriot Act, Attorney General
Guidelines,
FISA law, and the impact of the
4th and 5th Amendments in the context of overseas investigations.
We now provide cultural diversity training including
a block of instruction on Middle
Eastern culture and values.
Working
with our partners in the Intelligence
Community, we developed a curriculum
to provide relevant training for our
analysts. In fiscal year 2003, the
FBI's College of Analytical Studies
provided training to approximately
880 analysts during 90 analytical training
sessions -- a substantial increase
from the 193 analysts and 10 courses
provided in fiscal year 2002.
And,
in the past year, working with the
Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern
University, we indoctrinated our executive
staff on the FBI's intelligence mission.
To date, over 250 FBI executives and
senior managers have received management
training at the Kellogg School.
FBI
Management
I
am aware that this Subcommittee
has concerns about the FBI's ability to
adapt to change. It has been
my experience, Mr. Chairman, that the FBI has always
risen to the challenge and adjusted
to meet the intelligence and
law enforcement needs of the American people. From
organized crime to civil rights,
from the Savings & Loan crisis to espionage,
from the war on drugs to the
war on terror -- the men and women of the
FBI have demonstrated the strength,
flexibility and enthusiasm to
get the job done.
The
September 11th terrorist attacks further
defined the need for the FBI to remain
flexible, agile, and mobile in the
face of the threats to the homeland.
As a result, we refocused our mission
and shifted priorities; we realigned
our workforce to address our new priorities;
we restructured management responsibilities
at FBI Headquarters; and, we developed
projects to reengineer our internal
business practices and processes. Mr.
Chairman, the FBI's commitment to hard
work, integrity and dedication to protecting
the United States is precisely the
attribute a workforce needs to embrace
and implement the transformation demanded
of it. This is especially true in today's
FBI where crimes as diverse as terrorism,
corporate fraud, identity theft, human
trafficking, illegal weapons trade
and money laundering reach across global
boundaries.
Information
Technology
As
this Subcommittee is well aware, providing
appropriate training and workforce
flexibility are only part of the solution.
Today more than ever, the FBI's successes
rely upon having integrated information
technology systems. This past year
we improved our data warehousing technology
to dramatically reduce stove-piping
and cut down on man-hours that used
to be devoted to manual searches. As
an example, during the Super Bowl earlier
this year, data warehousing tools were
used to conduct over 65,000 queries
in three days --- equal to 1,160 plus
man hours. In the past an analyst would
have worked three months to accomplish
this task.