Tribute to David L. Brant

TRIBUTE TO DAVID L. BRANT -- (Senate - December 14, 2005)

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I take this opportunity to recognize a dedicated law enforcement official at the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, NCIS, David L. Brant, who is retiring after 28 years of service to the United States. Culminating a law enforcement career spanning over 30 years, Director David Brant has announced his retirement from Federal service effective December 9, 2005.

Following graduation in 1975 with a master's degree in criminology from Indiana State University, Mr. Brant began his law enforcement career as a police officer with the Dade County Metropolitan Public Safety Department in Miami, FL. Two years later, he accepted an offer from the Naval Investigative Service and began his service as a special agent assigned to NISRA Norfolk, VA. During his 4 years in the Norfolk area, Mr. Brant served in four different NIS offices and also completed an assignment as special agent afloat aboard the USS Independence.

For 13 years, Mr. Brant served NCIS in a number of assignments in the United States and the Philippines, and he earned an appointment to the Senior Executive Service as Assistant Director for Counterintelligence in 1994. Mr. Brant served in that capacity until he succeeded Roy D. Nedrow as Director of the NCIS in May 1997.

Mr. Brant has been widely recognized within the Department of the Navy and the Department of Defense, as well as within the Federal law enforcement community, for his innovative and transformational approaches to enhancing law enforcement and counterintelligence capabilities. He has led NCIS in developing and implementing operational strategies, across all of the agency's mission areas, which serve as models for others to follow. Additionally, Mr. Brant established the Counterterrorism Directorate and built the Multiple Threat Alert Center, MTAC, specifically to enhance the ability of the NCIS to counter threats facing the Navy and Marine Corps.

Other noteworthy accomplishments during Mr. Brant's tenure include the creation of both the NCIS Contingency Response Field Office, CRFO, to improve the capacity of NCIS to deploy agents to meet naval requirements in high-threat environments like Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Deployment Support Office, DSO, to better support those personnel once they are deployed. Mr. Brant has also led the creation of the Law Enforcement Information Exchange, LInX, Program, which has brought local, State, and Federal law enforcement agencies together to great effect in support of naval force protection and crimefighting in the Hampton Roads area and other parts of the country. He has partnered NCIS with the FBI on Joint Terrorism Task Forces, and assigned agents to Defense Department Force Protection Detachments, FPDs, around the world. Moreover, he has been an outstanding spokesman for NCIS and the Department of the Navy in senior level law enforcement, counterintelligence, and counterterrorism venues around the world.

Most of all, Mr. Brant appreciates that what makes NCIS a truly great agency is the quality of its people. He routinely fought to ensure that agents, analysts, and support personnel alike had the equipment, training, and support required to do their jobs. Under his leadership, NCIS gained civilian arrest authority and built a reputation as a first-class law enforcement agency. He established the Director's Advisory Board, DAB, to provide him with direct feedback for the field on emergent issues. Mr. Brant improved upon the NCIS support infrastructure by hiring specialists in the fields of communications, congressional affairs, human resources, and information technology. He increased the number of SES and other high-grade billets while also working diligently for the additional funding that will ensure the success of his agency for years to come.

During his career, Mr. Brant has been recognized as an outstanding leader by multiple organizations. For his distinguished service, he has received the Department of Defense Presidential Rank Award and the Department of the Navy Distinguished Service Award. Recently, he was honored by the Hispanic American Police Command Officers Association, HAPCOA, with the Aguila Award for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice and by the Women in Federal Law Enforcement, WIFLE, as the 2004 Outstanding Advocate for Women in Federal Law Enforcement.

As he begins his well deserved retirement, Mr. Brant will remain in the Washington, DC, area with his wife Merri Jo, and his children, Emily and Andrew. I salute David Brant for his dedicated service to our country, and I wish him and his family well in the years to come.

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