[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 127 (Thursday, October 12, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10333-S10334]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTELLIGENCE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2001--CONFERENCE REPORT

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
now proceed to the consideration of the conference report to accompany 
H.R. 4392, the intelligence authorization.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Committee of Conference on the disagreeing votes of the 
     two Houses on the amendment of the Senate on the bill H.R. 
     4392, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2001 for 
     intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the 
     United States Government, the Community Management Account, 
     and the Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability 
     System, and for other purposes, having met, have agreed that 
     the House recede from its disagreement to the amendment of 
     the Senate, and agreed to the same with an amendment, and the 
     Senate agree to the same, signed by a majority of the 
     conferees on the part of the Houses.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate will proceed to the consideration 
of the conference report.
  (The report was printed in the House proceedings of the Record of 
October 11, 2000.)
  Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, the Senate has before it the conference 
report to H.R. 4392, the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 
2001. The conference report reflects the legislation, S. 2507, that was 
approved unanimously by the Select Committee on Intelligence on April 
27, 2000, and amended and approved by the Senate on Monday, October 2.
  I thank Senator Bryan, the vice chairman of the committee for his 
assistance in expediting this conference report. This is Senator 
Bryan's first year as vice chairman. It has been a pleasure to work 
cooperatively with him on a wide range of issues, and I regret that 
this also will be his last year on the committee and in the Senate.
  The committee has been increasingly troubled by the NSA's growing 
inability to meet technological challenges and to provide America's 
leaders with vital signals intelligence, SIGINT. Success in NSA's 
mission is critical to our national security. Therefore, the conference 
report reflects the start of our investment in resources and support 
aimed at restoring the NSA's' capabilities.
  I am proud to report that the conference report addresses the growing 
problem of leaks of classified information. The conferees endorsed the 
Senate provision that will close a gap in U.S. law to ensure the 
prosecution of all unauthorized disclosure of classified information. 
Successive directors of Central Intelligence have decried the growing 
problem of leaks of classified information and the damage it causes to 
our national security. DCI Tenet has publically stated that the U.S. 
Government ``leaks like a sieve.''
  Arguments that section 304 will stifle the freedom of the press 
simply don't pass muster. This provision has nothing to do with 
restraining publication. It simply criminalizes knowing and willful 
disclosure of properly classified information by those charged with 
protecting it. The Senate Intelligence Committee unanimously approved 
this provision and worked closely with the Attorney General and the 
intelligence community to incorporate changes requested by the 
Department of Justice. The Departments of Justice and State and the CIA 
all support the provision as approved by the conference committee.

  Another provision of the bill is designed to ensure that the State 
Department corrects the serious, systemic security weaknesses that have 
repeatedly placed at risk sensitive classified intelligence information 
collected at considerable risk and expense. This provision would 
require that the Director of Central Intelligence certify that the 
retention and storage of Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) by 
any element of the State is in full compliance with all applicable DCI 
directives relating to the handling, retention, or storage of such 
information.
  The bill requires the Director of Central Intelligence, in 
consultation with the Secretary of Defense, to create an analytic 
capability for intelligence relating to prisoners of war and missing 
persons. The analytic capability will extend to activities with respect 
to prisoners of war and missing persons after December 31, 1990.
  Also, the bill strengthens the IG's requirements to be fully engaged 
in investigating and responding to possible wrongdoing by senior CIA 
officials. In the wake of the investigation of former Director of 
Central Intelligence John Deutch this provision will ensure that the 
CIA policies its senior officials.
  The conference report also contains the Counterintelligence Reform 
Act of 2000. S. 2089 was introduced by Senators Specter, Torricelli, 
Thurmond, Biden, Grassley, Feingold, Helms, Schumer, Sessions, and 
Leahy in April in the wake of Congressional and other investigations 
into PRC espionage against the Department of Energy's nuclear weapons 
laboratories and other U.S. government facilities, and the U.S. 
government's response. Those investigations focused attention on the 
application of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, and 
highlighted coordination, information-sharing, and other problems 
within and among the Department of Energy, FBI, and Department of 
Justice. The amendment will correct some of the problems in 
coordinating and sharing information between federal agencies, and will

[[Page S10334]]

clarify procedures and the statutory roles of various agencies in the 
investigation and prosecution of espionage and other cases affecting 
national security.
  I thank all Senators for their cooperation in this conference report, 
particularly the members of the committee. I also thank the staff of 
the Select Committee on Intelligence for their hard work in developing 
this legislation.


                              Section 304

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I would like to ask a question of the Vice 
Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Senator Bryan, for purposes of 
clarification with respect to one definition in the Intelligence 
Authorization bill. And that's the definition of ``classified 
information'' in Section 304 of the bill which amends Section 798A of 
Title 18. Section 304 establishes as a crime the willful disclosure of 
classified information to an unauthorized person. In paragraph (c)(2) 
it defines ``classified information'' as ``information that the person 
knows or has reason to believe has been properly classified by 
appropriate authorities, pursuant to the provisions of a statute or 
Executive Order. . .''
  Mr. President, I would like to ask the Vice Chairman's assurance that 
this bill is not intended to alter in any way the existing definitions 
of classified information contained in other statutes relevant to the 
protection of classified information and whistleblower rights. Is that 
correct?
  Mr. BRYAN. The Senator is correct, and I thank him for bringing this 
to the attention of the Senate.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the conference 
report be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, 
and any statements be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The conference report was agreed to.

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