Pulte Starts Day-One Firings as Acting DNI, 300 Jobs at Risk

Pulte Walks In Early and Starts Counting Heads

Bill Pulte did not waste any time settling into the acting director of national intelligence job. According to reports, he showed up a day early, asked for a full employee list, and began reviewing who might be shown the door. That is one way to send a message on day one, and it is not exactly subtle. The plan centers on sharp staffing cuts inside the intelligence bureaucracy, with Pulte moving quickly after President Trump tapped him to hold the post while the permanent nomination process remains tied up.

About 300 Jobs Could Be on the Chopping Block

Politico reported that Pulte directed ODNI staff to assemble a list of about 300 people who could be fired from the National Counterterrorism Center in the coming weeks. The NCTC has more than 1,000 personnel drawn from the intelligence community, federal agencies, and contractors, so these cuts would be significant. Supporters of the move say the national security bureaucracy has grown too fat and too slow. Critics, of course, will clutch their pearls and act shocked that a Republican administration might actually try shrinking Washington instead of feeding it another taxpayer meal.

Clayton Delay Keeps the Acting Setup in Place

The timing matters because Trump has delayed moving forward on Jay Clayton’s confirmation as director of national intelligence until the Senate confirms Clayton’s replacement as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. That delay leaves Pulte in charge for now, and he is using the opening to push the president’s mission to trim the intelligence apparatus. The move has also rattled the push to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with Democrats saying they will not support it while Pulte is running the agency. In Washington, nothing says “urgent national security debate” quite like a staff cleanup fight over who gets to keep the office coffee mug.

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