Gabbard unveils plan to slash top spy agency by 40% this year

Natalia Drozdiak, Bloomberg News on Aug 20, 2025

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Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced plans to shrink her agency by 40% by the end of the year in what she called an effort to make the office more efficient, even as she clashes with the national security community she leads.

The overhaul would save taxpayers $700 million per year by eliminating “redundant missions, functions and personnel” at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Gabbard said in a statement. The ODNI oversees the US’s 18 intelligence agencies.

Instead, the ODNI will invest in areas that “support the President’s national intelligence priorities, and focuses on rebuilding trust, exposing politicization and weaponization of intelligence, and holding bad actors accountable,” the statement said.

Bloomberg previously reported that the White House was pressing ahead with plans to slash the top spy agency.

Officials from both parties concede that the ODNI has become too bloated over the years and that the agency often duplicates work carried out by the independent intelligence agencies it oversees. Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas who leads the intelligence committee, welcomed the announcement as “an important step towards returning ODNI to that original size, scope, and mission.”

But the effort comes as Gabbard has been openly confrontational with the workforce she leads. The spy chief has sought to root out “politicization” by referring intelligence officers for prosecution over alleged leaks of classified information. Earlier this week, Gabbard suspended the security clearances of 37 current and former national security officials, continuing Trump’s trend of revoking clearances as a means of political retribution.

Two top officials from the National Intelligence Council were also reportedly fired in May after the release of a declassified memo that contradicted Trump’s basis for deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members.

Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that while lawmakers broadly agree ODNI is “in need of thoughtful reform,” Gabbard has a “track record of politicizing intelligence.” The Virginia Democrat added in a statement he has “no confidence that she is the right person to carry out this weighty responsibility.”

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With assistance from Jamie Tarabay and Nancy Cook.

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