National Intelligence Program

The National Intelligence Program (NIP) funds intelligence activities in several Federal departments and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). NIP’s work is critical to not only protecting American citizens, but also safeguarding our economy from outside threats to foster continued economic growth.  This 2012 Budget request represents a focused effort by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to introduce greater fiscal discipline within the NIP.  Although not subject to the President's freeze on non-security discretionary spending, the DNI has conducted an efficiencies review similar to that of the Department of Defense.  The DNI has used many of these identified efficiencies to reduce the growth in spending within the Intelligence Community.  The Budget discloses for the first time the aggregate funding for NIP – $55 billion in 2012.  However, detailed funding requests for intelligence activities remain classified.

Strengthens the Capabilities of our Nation’s Intelligence Agencies

• Strengthens the capabilities of the Nation's intelligence agencies to furnish timely, accurate, and insightful intelligence on the capabilities and intentions of foreign powers, including international terrorist groups.
• Supports efforts to defeat terrorists and disrupt their capabilities; prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; penetrate and analyze the most difficult targets of interest to the U.S.; identify and disrupt counterintelligence threats; maintain the security of Federal cyber networks; and provide strategic warning on issues of geopolitical and economic concern.  The Administration also remains committed to measuring performance to assess progress and create accountability for results across the NIP.
• Supports the building of a responsible information environment that enables the integration and sharing of intelligence information anywhere, anytime, with any authorized user‐where access is controlled by policy and law and not constrained by technology.

Supports the President’s Strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan

• Supports global intelligence operations in regions of strategic importance, namely Afghanistan and Pakistan, with Intelligence Community (IC) collection and analysis playing a key role in informing decision-makers at the strategic level and supporting the U.S. forces at a tactical level.

Enhances Federal Cybersecurity Capabilities

• Supports Presidential cybersecurity priorities, including continued research and development. A secure U.S. information infrastructure — including IC telecommunications and computer networks and systems, and the data that reside on them—is critical to the Nation’s security and economy.

Supports the U.S. Counterterrorism Plan

• Supports implementation of the National Counterterrorism Center’s (NCTC) U.S. Government-wide counterterrorism (CT) action plan and the use of program evaluations to help improve the effectiveness of CT programs.

Improves Oversight of Contractor Workforce

• Continues to improve oversight of the contractor workforce to improve the way Federal dollars are spent by implementing guidance on the proper use of contractors and through the annual core contractor inventory. 
• Includes reductions to the contractor workforce as the DNI seeks to streamline operations and make the IC more efficient.