US Intelligence expert reports on impact of sequester

The nation's ability to gather the current amount of intelligence on threats around the world will be impacted by sequestration, even though they will not start the cuts until later in the year, according to Corin Stone, Assistant Director of National Intelligence Policy and Strategy, Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The ability to gain new intelligence in areas that are not the top priorities will suffer first and we will see a slowdown in processing information. The agency will also scale back research, which could lead to a gap in ability to act quickly.

"We will see cuts in travel, conferences, and all non essential activities. I was even asked to walk here today," she said.

She noted that "What keeps us up at night, is that we can calculate what we will cut and what we will not be able to afford to do when cuts happen; but we cannot measure the impact of what we won't get or what we won't know." However, she did assure the group that the NSA will continue to focus on mission and do all we can to make our nation secure.