WASHINGTON—Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., and Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Me., Friday welcomed the confirmation of Caryn Wagner to be Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security. The Committee held a hearing on Ms. Wagner’s nomination December 3; she passed the full Senate by unanimous consent.
“The Department of Homeland Security has taken important steps to strengthen the Intelligence and Analysis Directorate that Ms. Wagner will head up,” Lieberman said. “However, the work is unfinished, and she will play a critical role in improving our intelligence capabilities related to the terrorist threat to the homeland and in supporting DHS’s border security, critical infrastructure and cyber security missions.
“Ms. Wagner knows these threats well, having served in the Army Signal Corps, Defense Intelligence Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, among other positions. I congratulate Ms. Wagner on her confirmation and look forward to working with her to keep our homeland safe.”
Collins said: “Caryn Wagner possesses considerable experience in managing the budgets and the analytic products of intelligence community elements that will serve her well as the next Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis and Chief Intelligence Officer at DHS. Her appointment comes at a time when the intelligence community acknowledges that it must make critical improvements in its ability to connect the dots in the intelligence it gathers and to share intelligence analysis. Gaps in analytical efforts resulted in Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarding a flight to the United States on Christmas Day with an explosive device. That is only one of the types of threats that the DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, as part of the intelligence community, will have to address under Ms. Wagner’s leadership.”
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