FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Caroline Tabler or Patrick McCann (202) 224-2353
March 25, 2025
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Cotton’s Opening Remarks as Delivered at the Worldwide Threat Assessment Hearing
Washington, D.C. — Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today delivered the below opening statement at the Intelligence Committee’s annual Worldwide Threat Assessment hearing. Below are his remarks as delivered.
Good morning. Welcome to the Senate Intelligence Annual Worldwide Threats Hearing. I’d like to begin by welcoming our esteemed panel of witnesses: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard; the CIA Director John Ratcliffe; the FBI Director Kash Patel; the Director of the National Security Agency and Commander of U.S. Cyber Command General Tim Haugh; and DIA Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse.
Thank you all for your appearance. Thank you for your leadership.
I also want to recognize the hard work and dedication of the thousands of men and women in our intelligence community whom you’re here to represent today. Their successes are seldom celebrated, their accomplishments are often unseen. But our nation is grateful to each one for the vital work they do to keep our nation safe, prosperous, and free.
Our Annual Worldwide Threats Hearing allows for the American people to receive an unvarnished and unbiased account of the real and present dangers that our nation faces.
As we will hear from our witnesses, many of the threats we face are truly existential.
Communist China is actively working to replace the United States as the world’s dominant superpower. China uses coercive military, economic, and influence operations short of war, to shape a world favorable to its interests and hostile to ours. These methods include the biggest peacetime military buildup in history; rapidly expanding its nuclear forces; providing critical assistance to help Russia withstand U.S. sanctions; obscuring its role in accelerating the spread of COVID-19 beyond Wuhan; turning a blind eye to Chinese companies that enable the production of fentanyl flooding into the United States; and putting space-weapons on orbit; among other tactics.
Iran, despite setbacks inflicted on its so-called “Axis of Resistance” by Israel over the last year, still aims to destroy what it calls the “Little Satan” – the State of Israel – and what it calls the “Great Satan” – the United States. It continues to arm many rebels to attack global shipping. Though these outlaws have suffered terrible losses over the last two weeks, thanks to decisive action by President Trump and our brave troops. I commend the President, Mike Waltz, Pete Hegseth, and his entire national security team for these actions.
Iran also continues its decades-long effort to develop surrogate networks inside the United States to threaten U.S. citizens. Furthermore, Iran’s nuclear program continues apace; it’s actively developing multiple space launch vehicles – which are little more than flimsy cover for an ICBM program that could hit the United States in a matter of years. But this is coming to an end. The Supreme Leader of Iran faces a stark choice, thanks to President Trump. The Supreme Leader can fully dismantle his nuclear program, or he can have it dismantled for him.
Finally, today’s report also acknowledges that illicit drug production endangers the health and safety of millions of Americans. For the first time, the Annual Threat Assessment lists Foreign Illicit Drug Actors as the very first threat to our country. As the report highlights, Mexican-based cartels, using precursors produced in China, continue to smuggle fentanyl and synthetic opioids into the United States. Last year alone, these deadly drugs tragically killed more than 52,000 Americans – more than the number killed in attacks by foreign terrorists or foreign nations.
Given these threats we have to ask, “Are our intelligence agencies well postured against these threats?” I’m afraid the answer is no – at least not yet.
As the world became more dangerous in recent years, our intelligence agencies got more politicized, more bureaucratic, and more focused on promulgating opinions rather than gathering facts. As a result of these misplaced priorities, we have been caught off guard and left in the dark too often.
I know that all of you agree that the core mission of the intelligence community is to steal our adversaries’ secrets and convey them to policymakers to protect the United States.
At the same time, it is not the role of the intelligence agencies to make policy, to justify presidential actions, or to operate like other federal agencies.
After years of drift, the intelligence community must recommit to its core mission of collecting clandestine intelligence from adversaries whose main objective is to destroy our nation and our way of life.
The reason is not that our intelligence community lacks dedicated patriots who show up to work every day to protect the American people – on the contrary, it has an abundance of them. The reasons are a misuse of resources, bureaucratic bloat, a default to play it safe, and a past administration that prioritized social engineering over espionage.
Coupled with recent failures, the findings in today’s worldwide threat report should be a wake-up call to all of us to get our house in order. The status quo is proving inadequate to provide the President and Congress with the intelligence needed to protect the American people.
As more storms gather, America's intelligence capabilities require urgent reform and revitalization.
As the Chairman of this Committee, I look forward to working with each of you to strengthen America’s intelligence edge and refocus our intelligence community on its core mission: stealing secrets.
The American people deserve nothing less. We’ve assembled an impressive team to get this done, and I look forward to hearing your comments.
Now, I recognize the Vice Chairman for opening remarks.
###
