WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence held a hearing titled, “Examining the Intelligence Community’s use of Commercial Information.” Witnesses include Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Aaron Lukas, the Director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), Dr. Christopher Scolese, and the Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), Lieutenant General Michele Bredenkamp.

During the hearing, the witnesses discussed how the IC obtains and uses Commercially Available Information (CAI) to enable various intelligence disciplines in support of U.S. national security. They also reiterated how they are actively working to update standards and prevent duplicative purchases of CAI.

“I am grateful for the witnesses’ time and willingness to come before our Committee to work with us on paving the path forward on the IC’s acquisition of commercially available information,” said Chairman Crawford. “As OSINT matures into a primary intelligence, it is critical that the IC adheres to a more standardized governance when purchasing CAI. Again, I appreciate the witnesses’ commitment to working with our Committee to ensure the IC acts as good stewards of taxpayer dollars, reducing inefficiencies and waste with duplicative commercially available information purchases.”

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