WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump's Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Wednesday her office will "reduce bloat by over 40 percent," a move she said would save more than 700 million U.S. dollars annually.

"Over the last 20 years, ODNI (Office of the Director of National Intelligence) has become bloated and inefficient, and the intelligence community is rife with abuse of power, unauthorized leaks of classified intelligence, and politicized weaponization of intelligence," Gabbard said in a statement.

The action is aimed at better enabling the office "to focus on fulfilling its critical role of serving as the central hub for intelligence integration, strategic guidance, and oversight over the Intelligence Community," according to the statement.

ODNI was created after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, exposed systemic failures across the Intelligence Community. Its purpose was to integrate intelligence from and provide oversight over all Intelligence Community elements (currently 18) in order to ensure the intelligence provided to the President and policymakers is timely, accurate, and apolitical, the statement noted. ■