Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) will chair a bipartisan House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence review of the 9/11 Commission Report, her office announced.
The panel will, according to Stefanik’s office, review whether progress has been made regarding the 9/11 Commission Report’s recommendations for the intelligence community.
The 585-page report, released in 2004, concluded “that the institutions charged with protecting our borders, civil aviation and national security did not understand how grave” the threat to the United States was ahead of the attacks.
It also noted prior limitations within the broader intelligence community, including the CIA and FBI, in intelligence-gathering and counterterrorism efforts in the 1990s and early 2000s. The report said “the combination of an overwhelming number of priorities, flat budgets, an outmoded structure, and bureaucratic rivalries resulted in an insufficient response to this new challenge.”
Additionally, the report called for the establishment of a National Counterterrorism Center, an agency that began operations in August 2004, and a director of national intelligence, a position that was created in December 2004. It also highlighted the need to unify the intelligence community “in a network-based information sharing system that transcends traditional governmental boundaries,” and for congressional oversight, the FBI and homeland defenders to be strengthened.
Thursday marked 24 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. According to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, 2,977 people died in the attacks, including 2,753 in New York, 184 at the Pentagon and 40 on Flight 93, which crash landed in Pennsylvania.
Stefanik said in the statement she was “honored” to lead the review.
Stefanik will lead the working group alongside Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.). The two are members of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, which is chaired by Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.).
“As we mark the 25th anniversary of one of the darkest days in U.S. history next year, we must ensure our intelligence community and its capabilities remain one step ahead of our rapidly evolving adversaries,” Crawford said in the release. “While the threats look different today, the mission remains the same: we can never allow a failure to connect the dots to result in catastrophe ever again.”
The release noted that the working group will hold public and private events, hearings and briefings throughout its review. It will release actionable recommendations on Sept. 11, 2026, the 25th anniversary of the attacks.
President Trump nominated Stefanik in November 2024 to be the United States ambassador to the United Nations. However, her nomination was withdrawn in March amid GOP concerns about the party’s thin House majority.