Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

7. Intelligence Community · Minor

Give the DNI a say in selecting IC positions across subordinate agencies

Not started

207 7. Intelligence Community

“An incoming conservative President will appoint whomever he chooses as DNI, but there should be agreement between the incoming DNI and President with advice and counsel from the Presidential Personnel Office on selecting positions overseen by the DNI throughout subordinate agencies, as well as concurrence by relevant Cabinet officials and the CIA.”

What has happened

  1. Not started

    No allowlisted record of an agreement between the President and the DNI, with the Presidential Personnel Office, on selecting DNI-overseen positions throughout subordinate IC agencies. Retested for ticket 04 on 2026-09-03 against ODNI's own site, which turned out to be readable: ODNI's own RSS feed (`odni.gov/feed/`) was read in full on 2026-09-03 — 536 items spanning 2005 to 2026-08-20, which is the complete public inventory of ODNI press releases, reports, remarks, biographies and Intelligence Community Directives, and nothing in it records a selection or concurrence arrangement of any kind. The Senate-confirmed IC slate in the window (DNI Gabbard 2025-02-12 and DNI Clayton 2026-07-28; PDDNI Lukas; NCTC Director Kent; NCSC Director Street; IC Inspector General Fox; ODNI General Counsel Dever; CIA Director Ratcliffe; CIA Inspector General Thomson; CIA General Counsel Simmons) shows that the posts were filled, but no instrument records who chose them or on what terms.

    No action found yet. This entry is the starting point, not a finding.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • This ask is an appointment, so we checked first our roster of the people the Mandate credits. It carries John Ratcliffe (Director, CIA, 2025-01-23) and Matthew Kozma (DHS Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis, 2025-07-31) but no entry that bears on the selection process the Quote describes.
  • Senate nominations from congress.gov were read for every 119th-Congress nomination whose organization is the Office of the Director of National Intelligence or the Central Intelligence Agency; ten confirmations were found, all by roll-call vote, none of which evidences the concurrence arrangement the Quote asks for.
  • The instrument would be an internal understanding between the President, the DNI and the Presidential Personnel Office. There is no public instrument at any point — the honest answer here is not started with the search recorded. This ask is also covered by a single negative search of Executive Order 12333 and the DNI’s authorities.
Action
appoint
Object
DNI-overseen positions in subordinate IC agencies
ID
536