U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) successfully secured Senate approval of bipartisan legislation designating today, July 26, 2013, as ‘United States Intelligence Professionals Day’ to honor intelligence officers, past and present, for their service to our country.  On July 26, 1947, President Harry Truman signed the National Security Act, which created the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and laid the foundation for today’s intelligence community. The legislation is co-sponsored by 23 senators. 

“The covert nature of their work too often prevents us from paying tribute to the intelligence professionals who labor every day to keep our nation safe,” Sen. Warner said. “It is my hope that by establishing an Intelligence Professionals Day, we will help bring respectful attention to the thousands of quiet workers who have earned our praise and our gratitude.”

Since joining the Senate in 2009, Sen. Warner has been a consistent advocate for federal workers, the intelligence community, and Virginia’s military families and veterans. In 2010, he co-founded the bipartisan Gang of Six, which worked for two years in an effort to find common ground on solutions to our nation’s deficits and debt. As chairman of the Budget Committee’s Task Force on Government Performance, Sen. Warner has worked to bring greater efficiency, accountability and transparency to government programs and spending. Sen. Warner, who serves on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, frequently speaks on the Senate floor to honor the work of federal employees, including Sandy Grimes and the late Jeanne Vertefeuille, both of whom Sen. Warner praised in a floor speech earlier this year for their key roles in the 1994 arrest and espionage conviction of CIA spy Aldrich Ames.

The legislation to establish ‘Intelligence Professionals Day’ is cosponsored by Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Richard Burr (R-NC), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Mark Udall (D-CO), Jim Risch (R-ID), Angus King (I-ME), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Dan Coats (R-IN), Susan Collins (R-ME), Tom Coburn (R-OK), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI). Text of the legislation is available here.