Key facts
- Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte announced a third round of staff reductions.
- Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard plans to reduce the ODNI workforce by over 40% by the end of FY25.
- The restructuring, "ODNI 2.0," aims to save over $700 million annually.
- The ODNI workforce has already been reduced to approximately 1,500 staff.
- Gabbard stated the goal is to end the "weaponization of intelligence."
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) is set to significantly reduce its workforce as part of a major restructuring. Acting Director Bill Pulte announced a third round of staff reductions on Friday, stating the move would increase efficiency. Separately, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced on Wednesday that the agency plans to shrink by over 40% before the end of fiscal year 2025.
This initiative, dubbed "ODNI 2.0," is projected to save more than $700 million annually. Gabbard stated that since its inception after the September 11th attacks, the ODNI has become "bloated and inefficient" and that the intelligence community has been plagued by "abuse of power, unauthorized leaks of classified intelligence, and politicized weaponization of intelligence." She emphasized that ending such practices is crucial for rebuilding public trust.
The ODNI's workforce has already decreased from slightly less than 2,000 staff at the beginning of the Trump administration to approximately 1,500 as of mid-August. The planned cuts will result in an additional reduction of about 200 personnel, bringing the total staff cut since January to roughly 35%.
As part of the restructuring, the agency also intends to eliminate or consolidate several programs and components deemed redundant or overly partisan. Specific centers like the Foreign Malign Influence Center, the National Counterproliferation and Biosecurity Center, and the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center will see their functions refocused and integrated into ODNI's Mission Integration and the National Intelligence Council. The External Research Council and Strategic Futures Group are slated for termination, with ODNI asserting they had served as conduits for injecting partisan priorities into intelligence products. President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have historically expressed skepticism towards the U.S. intelligence community.