Senate Intelligence Chairman Sen. Tom Cotton is apparently looking to pass legislation limiting DNI Tulsi Gabbard's role in providing oversight to intel agencies

X ^ | July 23 | @JohnBasham

[nwrep]

Because he does not agree with us.

[mgstarr]

I remember when my mother helped host a meet and greet with Cotton in central Arkansas when he was first running for Congress in 2012. I warned her that he’d quickly be corrupted if he wasn’t already. Being endorsed by John McCain didn’t help things any.

[mac_truck]

For example, Gabbard has released information that shows that Dutch Intelligence had penetrated Russian Intelligence and had direct access to Russian intel.

Do you have any evidence that this assertion is true?

[revivaljoe]

He’s deep state - he’s tied to all the rhino republicans

[ohioman]

BS. Tulsi is acting within the parameters set by Trump. If this story is true, Tom is a Cotten pickin idiot!

[ohioman]

Good point!

[PermaRag]

"His voting record appears generally good; the American Conservative Union’s Center for Legislative Accountability gives him a lifetime rating of 86.06, per Wikipedia."

By that measure (and his lifetime rating is 82 now) Cotton was a solid conservative for his one term in the House (2013-14).

He was a solid conservative for the first 2 years of his first Senate term as well (2015-16).

Cotton's sudden lurch from solid conservative to moderate squish (or sometimes worse) began in 2017, just as Trump was elected for the first time. His voting record reached its squishy nadir in 2024 (69% conservative). Voting record aside, he is now in a position to do a lot of damage and seems intent on doing it.

He's no Susan Collins or Lisa Murkowski, but Arkansas can do way better. Too bad most of their House reps are no better than Cotton.

Tom Cotton election results and ideology ratings from RightDataUSA.com

[Bratch]

Counter Attack – New Intelligence Authorization Act Seeks to Curb Power of DNI

July 20, 2025 | Sundance

The response from Chairman Tom Cotton and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to the action of DNI Tulsi Gabbard was predictable.

The SSCI has now framed the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 [LINK] to modify the “responsibilities and authorities of the Director of National Intelligence.” [Section 402]

[SOURCE – Sec 402 LINK]

We knew this was coming.  The Intelligence Community does not like rogue actors amid their ranks, especially if those people have cross-silo access.  The silo system is designed to protect the Deep State.  Any entity who can cross reference the inserted information becomes a risk to the enterprise.

Senator Cotton cannot directly oppose Tulsi Gabbard without exposing himself.  Thus someone, not the SSCI, writes the legislative changes to the Intelligence Community rules and procedures and Tom Cotton simply advances them.  That’s the way DC operates.

[TWEET LINK]

Additionally, Chairman Cotton does not want the DNI to investigate or generate its own intelligence.  Cotton demands the ODNI just accept and regurgitate the intelligence Tulsi Gabbard would be given by the other agencies; no independent review of analysis permitted.  All of these actions push the Intelligence Community power center back into the CIA and away from the prying eyes of the DNI.  That’s the SSCI motive.

WASHINGTON DC – A top Republican senator is proposing a sweeping overhaul of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, slashing the workforce of an organization that has expanded since it was created in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Under a bill by Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, the chair of the Intelligence Committee, the ODNI’s staff of about 1,600 would be capped at 650, according to a senior Senate aide familiar with the proposed legislation.

ODNI’s workforce was about 2,000 in January, but National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard has already overseen a reduction of about 20% as part of the Trump administration’s drive to shrink the federal workforce. The reduction in the staff Gabbard oversees could weaken her role in the intelligence bureaucracy.

[…] The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, exposed a failure to share information across spy agencies with catastrophic results. As a result, Congress established the ODNI to oversee all of the country’s 18 intelligence services, including the CIA, and manage bureaucratic turf wars from a complex outside Washington, D.C.

What started as a relatively small office under the national intelligence director in 2005 has expanded over the last 20 years to include in-house analysis teams and centers focused on counterterrorism and counterintelligence. Cotton has described the ODNI as a bloated bureaucracy that should return to its original mission of coordinating the work of other spy agencies instead of producing its own reports and duplicating other agencies’ efforts.

“Congress in no way wanted yet another unruly bureaucracy layered on top of an already bureaucratic intelligence community,” Cotton said at Gabbard’s confirmation hearing in late January. “Unfortunately, 20 years later, that’s exactly what the ODNI has become.”

Gabbard herself expressed support for downsizing the ODNI’s workforce at the hearing, saying she would work with Cotton and other lawmakers to eliminate “redundancies and bloating.” (read more)

In the lead up to the election I outlined what the DNI could do with untapped power already given to the office.  DNI Tulsi Gabbard has been following a path close to that outline.  Now, we see Washington DC responding to that affirmed power structure and actively working to neuter the DNI.  A very predictable outcome.

The only intelligence silo more corrupt than the CIA is the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that oversees it.

[Georgia Girl 2]

We were warned cotton would attempt this. He’s deep state RINO. He needs to be stopped.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Trump can just veto it anyway.

[Wallace T.]

The Netherlands has not been a major power since the 18th Century. The British threw them out of Africa and New York but the Dutch kept Indonesia, a few Caribbean islands, and Dutch Guiana out of British sufferance. The Netherlands collapsed quickly to the German onslaught in 1940. It is hard to believe that country has the capacity or desire to penetrate Russian intelligence. Are they acting in concert with the Five Eyes or German intelligence?

[Eleutheria5]

Veto. No override. No support in the House, either.

[rdcbn1]

The Dutch are pretty darn smart people.

Maybe not quite as smart as they think that they are, but very smart none the less.

I would not underestimate them

[Eleutheria5]

But Tom Cotton knows all this. This “new legislation” is just a pose. He never intended it to get out of committee.

[StAnDeliver]

"The typing/report is a little messy 😂 but seems solid info confirmed by Charlie Kirk to Tucker Carlson (video in excerpt)"

What is your problem? Grok will provide a transcript from an X.com video -- it would have taken you 20 seconds to obtain a transcript and post an excerpt here. But no, there is nothing but telephone game nonsense in this lede:

"UPDATE: @charliekirk11 Confirms To @TuckerCarlson What My Capitol Hill Sources Are Telling Me"

And that's exactly how you want it, giggleshit nonsense post that you astroturf to the sidebar so you can attention whore.

This is identical to Arator's exit, shitposting to get the attention of the management.

Punching down on the memory of a dead woman, Ashli Babbitt, who was murdered by a J6 Capitol hoodlum. Jesus H. Christ.

I would tell you to get your priorities straight but your only priority is self-baking attention whore.

You take your TDS, self-loathing, Ronlim liebertarian azz straight back to patriots.glurkglurkglurk.

[oldtech]

This seems incredible to restrict Gabbard as she is DNI. Do I not understand what DNI means? What is going on here?

[kvanbrunt2]

I’d be ok with that if you defund and cancel the CIA, NSA, and FBI. These guys were good at making up stories about so called spies.

[rdcbn1]

The Dutch were right it seems

[Sirius Lee]

Dutch chicks are tall and often lovely.

[rdcbn1]

Dutch chicks are tall and often lovely.

---

You bet -how do you think they broke through Russian Intelligence