Report: Clapper says Intelligence Spending Down 1% in 2012, First Drop Since 9/11

Spending on the 16 intelligence agencies and departments decreased by one percent from last year, the first drop since 9/11, CNN Security reports. 

Going off a statement released by James Clapper, director of national intelligence, Pam Benson wrote that  intelligence spending for fiscal 2012 was $53.9 billion, down from 2011’s $54.6 billion total.

Clapper said that the lower budget follows the Office of Management and Budget‘s request to make further cuts because of deficits.

“Maintaining the world’s premier intelligence enterprise in the face of shrinking budgets will be difficult,” Clapper said.

“We’ll be accepting and managing risk more so than we’ve had to do in the last decade,” he added.

The national intelligence director said earlier this year that the intelligence budget would decrease further in 2013 to $52.6 billion, an additional 2.4 percent decrease.