Good morning Chairman Leahy. We appreciate the opportunity to be here to discuss the myriad of things we are doing in response to the issues properly identified by Inspector General Fine. We also appreciate this Committee's longstanding interest in our ongoing efforts to rebuild our antiquated information infrastructure.

We commend the Inspector General and his staff for a thorough, objective and independent examination of these issues. His report is instructive and his recommendations constructive. Because his findings go to the very heart of how we conduct one of our core functions, Director Mueller has had the report made available to all employees and has made it recommended reading for all FBI management and supervisory personnel. Its lessons will be part of our training and its relevance and importance will live far beyond today.

Last May, then Director Freeh outlined for Congress the massive nature of the OKBOMB investigation and the virtual flood of documents and information created during its course. He also expressed regret that our shortcomings pertaining to the records had overshadowed the enormity of the sacrifices and accomplishments of those Agents who successfully investigated this case. He candidly admitted that "we simply have too little management attention focused on what has become over time a monumental task ....the seemingly mundane tasks of proper records creation, maintenance, dissemination and retrieval have not received the appropriate level of senior management attention ... [and that] this episode demonstrated that the mundane must be done as well as the spectacular." He then outlined a number of steps that the Bureau had embarked upon to fix some of the shortcomings.

On Tuesday, Director Mueller stated that "Sound records management and document accountability are at the heart of the FBI's ability to support investigations and prosecutions with information integrity. There can be no doubt about the accuracy, completeness and proper disclosure of the records we compile during our investigations and used by prosecutors in support of prosecutions. The ability to maintain, access and retrieve documents is critical to our mission and equally critical to our ability to protect the rights of those charged with crimes. It also is fundamental to robust analytical and information sharing capacities, both functions that we are rapidly enhancing. In short, records management and integrity are core functions that demand the same level of attention and accountability as any function we undertake. It must be a part of the Bureau's culture."

As Inspector General Fine outlined for you, there are a host of contributing factors. The methods we use to record and retrieve information are too complex. Our Automated Case System (ACS) was not very effective in identifying information or supporting the investigation. Our technology was inadequate. We lacked a true information management system and what we do have is not user friendly. Many of our employees lacked the training necessary to be fully engaged in an automated environment and a host of other issues as well.

But what we thought when this issue first surfaced and what we believe now has been confirmed by Mr. Fine. This is not a "computer glitch," although a more robust system would have helped. It is a management and cultural issue which must be forthrightly confronted. We can add technology, simplify our procedures and dramatically reduce the opportunities for human error. Doing those things are relatively simple.

What we must do and what we are doing is recognizing information management as the core function that it is. At senior levels, we must lead the Bureau back to where this function is accepted as second nature. We must put in place the structures and automation that fully support this core function and we must inculcate in every employee, ourselves included, that this new way of doing business is the only way acceptable. We must improve our records management practices, not simply automate what we've been doing for decades.

We are taking specific actions to address each concern raised by the Inspector General, and a number of significant steps are well underway to overhaul our Bureau-wide records management capabilities, to increase accountability for compliance with established records procedures, and to put in place the training and skill sets necessary to bring about full employee acceptance of a near paperless environment.

Borrowing a little from what my boss has said, namely that with the help of Congress, we have restructured to recognize that the creation, maintenance, use and dissemination of our records is a core function that must be fully supported by management as a priority.

We have created a Records Management Division to ensure executive direction and full-time oversight over all records policy and functions, consolidating all records operations to ensure consistency, thoroughness and accountability.

A professional records management expert, Mr. William Hooton, here with us today, has been hired from the private sector to run the division. He has been charged with modernizing our enterprise-wide records systems and developing comprehensive, enforceable policies and procedures to ensure records integrity. He also is charged with putting in place those quality control mechanisms that will detect anomalies and problems early on. It is critical that we manage information, not just the systems that support our records.

Congress has funded, and we are implementing, extensive agency-wide training aimed squarely at reforming our culture to one that exploits and incorporates technology in our everyday way of doing business. Director Mueller is personally providing the leadership for this.

We have retrained our employees on proper document production, maintenance and retrieval and the importance of records management as a core function. There will be continuous training over the course of an employee's career.

And, of course, basic to any modern system of records is a modern information technology system, and modernization of our information technology, as this Committee knows, is one of our top priorities. We are making sustained progress in this area. Congress has approved funding for the FBI to upgrade technologies and infrastructure for organizing, accessing, analyzing and sharing information throughout the FBI and beyond.

We are replacing the now antiquated Automated Case System in favor of a multimedia and near paperless "virtual case file" with significant improvements in capabilities that greatly reduce the possibility that future documents will be misfiled, lost or otherwise failed to be produced. The new system will dramatically decrease the potential for human error both by automatically doing many functions now done by manual intervention and by substantially reducing the number of opportunities for problems to occur that are inherent in our current systems.

This new case file document management system, designed with substantial input from street Agents, will be of benefit by greatly simplifying the records creation and maintenance processes, being user friendly, and by allowing us to manage "leads" far more effectively.

The FBI's computer network is being completely revitalized to provide a "data warehousing" collaborative environment instead of application "stove pipes." The creation of "data warehouses" and ample supporting networks provide easier and more robust access to and sharing of information and results in integrated databases. The need for ad hoc crisis software applications will be eliminated.

Private sector support, which will allow commercial software and professional scanning, indexing and storage of documents, is being used to move us rapidly out of the paper environment that was so vexing in the OKBOMB situation. 

All of these systemic changes and many others, including everything Mr. Fine recommended, are critical components to what must be a sustained, agency-wide effort. These fundamental things are as important to protecting rights as how we execute warrants and testify in court. The challenge is great, especially the challenge of changing a culture. We believe we are on the way.

Finally, although his exhaustive investigation found no evidence of any intentional effort to withhold information from defense counsel, the Inspector General's report also criticizes the actions of certain FBI personnel. We are reviewing these criticisms and will quickly move to take any appropriate disciplinary action. In the end, there must be accountability.