Acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Bill Pulte said Sunday that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has completed its fourth round of layoffs since he assumed leadership of the agency following former DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s departure.
In a July 26 post on X, Pulte said the reductions are part of an effort to streamline the agency and refocus its mission.
“Since becoming Acting Director of National Intelligence, our team has been smartly, and carefully, reducing the size of ODNI, re-focusing ODNI on national security, the law, and the statute,” Pulte wrote. “As of this evening, we just finished a 4th round of thoughtful, measured layoffs.”
The layoffs are the latest phase of a workforce reduction initiative that began under Gabbard.
In August 2025, Gabbard announced the ODNI 2.0 initiative, a restructuring plan aimed at reducing the agency’s workforce by nearly 50% by the end of fiscal year 2025.
The plan called for refocusing functions within the Foreign Malign Influence Center, the National Counterproliferation and Biosecurity Center, and the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center, while integrating core functions and expertise from those offices into ODNI’s Mission Integration Directorate and the National Intelligence Council.
At the time, the agency said it had already reduced its workforce by nearly 30%, with more than 500 employees leaving the organization since Gabbard took office.
The restructuring effort has drawn support from senior Republicans.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who has argued that ODNI has grown into a bloated bureaucracy, has pushed legislatively and politically to return the office to what he describes as its original, leaner mission, including proposing a cap of 650 full-time employees, down from historical staffing levels of roughly 1,600 to 2,000 workers.
Democratic lawmakers have acknowledged that the agency could benefit from workforce reductions but have criticized how the Trump administration has carried out the cuts.
During President Donald Trump’s nominee Jay Clayton’s nomination hearing to serve as director of national intelligence, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., urged him to restore the Foreign Malign Influence Center, the National Counterproliferation and Biosecurity Center, and the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center.
Clayton declined to commit to reestablishing the centers but said he would evaluate whether additional resources or coordination are necessary.
Senior congressional Democrats also have cautioned Pulte against pursuing significant personnel or organizational changes while serving in an acting capacity.
In a June 22 letter, Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said they were concerned Pulte could take actions beyond those typically associated with an acting director.
While acknowledging there is “room to consider responsible reductions to ODNI’s workforce,” the lawmakers said that additional large-scale cuts following the agency’s previous downsizing could jeopardize its mission.
The lawmakers added that “making significant structural changes to ODNI, to include a reduction in force, is not an appropriate course of action for anyone in an acting capacity, let alone without consultation with Congress.”