Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte has begun reducing the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, dismissing several political appointees and sending dozens of career officers back to their home agencies as President Donald Trump pushes to shrink the nation's top intelligence coordinating office.

The staffing changes, first reported by The Washington Post, include the firing of six political appointees and the return of about 45 to 50 career intelligence officers who had been detailed to the ODNI from other agencies.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., defended the moves Wednesday, rejecting suggestions that the office was undergoing "mass firings."

Cotton said Pulte told him that only "a small handful of front-office personnel" were leaving, "which is not at all uncommon when a senior leader leaves an agency or one comes into an agency."

He added that about 45 to 50 career officers were simply returning to their home agencies.

"I think that's a step in the right direction," Cotton said on the Senate floor. Cotton has long advocated reducing the size of the ODNI and last year introduced legislation that would cap the agency's full-time workforce at 650 employees.

The personnel changes have drawn criticism from several former intelligence officials, including some who have argued the agency should eventually be downsized.

Beth Sanner, who served as deputy director of national intelligence and was Trump's intelligence briefer during his first administration, said the cuts threaten to weaken the office.

"The agency is being so hollowed out that its new name might become DNR — do not resuscitate," Sanner told the Post. "It's on life support already."

Julia Curlee, who served as director for intelligence programs on Trump's White House staff until last year and recently resigned from the CIA after a 20-year career as an analyst, questioned the administration's approach.

"Reasonable people can debate ODNI's size and mission," Curlee told the newspaper. "But sacking dozens of seasoned officers in your first week isn't reform — it's performative firing to please a president who treats his own intelligence community as the enemy within."

John Sipher, a former CIA Moscow station chief who spent 28 years with the agency and has advocated dismantling the ODNI, said he supports reducing the office's size but disagrees with how the changes are being carried out.

"Getting [the agency] smaller makes sense, but this isn't the way to do it," Sipher told The Post.

Trump has called for reducing the size of the ODNI, which was created in 2004 to coordinate the work of the nation's 18 intelligence agencies following recommendations made after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The agency has not publicly said whether additional staffing reductions are planned.