[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 169 (Friday, December 28, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8513-S8515]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
INTELLIGENCE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2013
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate
proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 475, S. 3454.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.
A bill (S. 3454) to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2013 for
intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the United States
Government and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the
Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability System, and for
other purposes.
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, among the unfinished business before
the Senate is the consideration of the Intelligence Authorization Act
for Fiscal Year 2013. I am asking today for unanimous consent to
approve this legislation with a managers' amendment worked out both
with vice chairman Chambliss and the chairman and ranking member of the
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, in consultation with
the Armed Services and Appropriations Committees.
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence reported its Fiscal Year
2013 bill, S. 3454, with its accompanying report, S. Rpt. 112-192, on
July 30, 2012 by a vote of 14-1. The bill and report have been publicly
available since it was reported. The classified annex reported from the
Committee was also available for all Senators to review in the
Committee's office.
S. 3454 as reported from our Committee was not without controversy,
especially with regard to provisions in the bill that were meant to
address the wholly unacceptable and large-scale disclosures of
classified information to the media.
Since the bill was reported out, the Committee has received
thoughtful comments from our colleagues, media organizations, and from
organizations that advocate for greater governmental transparency. As a
result of these comments, and technical suggestions received from the
Executive Branch, we have decided to remove ten of the twelve sections
in the title of the original bill that addressed unauthorized
disclosures of classified information so that we might ensure enactment
this year of the important other provisions of the bill.
Unfortunately, I am certain that damaging leaks of classified
information will continue, and so the Committee will need to continue
to look for acceptable ways to address this problem.
Let me briefly describe the managers' amendment and where we have
made modifications in what was reported from the Committee.
As always, the intelligence authorization bill has two pieces: the
legislative text, which is unclassified, and a classified annex that
contains the Committee's authorization of intelligence spending.
The bill contains a number of legislative provisions requested by the
Administration to give the intelligence community the authorities and
flexibilities it needs to continue protecting the American people and
providing policymakers information for foreign policy and security
decisions, as well as for the effective and appropriate functioning of
our intelligence apparatus.
Among other things, this bill includes:
Repeal of four recurring reporting requirements burdensome to
Intelligence Community agencies when the information in such reports is
duplicative, or is provided to the Congress through other means. We
regularly hear from intelligence officials that they spend so much time
writing reports that it interferes with collection, analysis, and
management of intelligence activities.
Modification of personnel authorities to facilitate more ``joint
duty'' assignments within the Intelligence Community that will create
shared knowledge across different elements of the IC.
These provisions, and several others that are mainly technical in
nature, were requested by the director of National Intelligence and
incorporated into the bill.
Other sections were initiated by the Committee to assist
Congressional oversight efforts. These include, for example, a
requirement for corrective action plans to be developed to address
[[Page S8514]]
the issue of improper payments made by intelligence agencies. We also
require notification to the congressional intelligence committees under
certain circumstances with respect to certain disclosures of national
intelligence information.
As this managers' amendment represents the combined efforts of the
Senate and House, we have also included three provisions from the
House-passed bill which were not in the Committee's original bill.
These address security clearance reciprocity, subcontractor business
opportunities in the Intelligence Community, and a report on supply
chain vulnerabilities.
I am attaching at the end of this statement a section-by-section
analysis that describes each of the sections of this managers'
amendment.
It is my hope that the provisions in this bill will continue to aid
the Intelligence Community as it conducts its missions, ensure better
stewardship of taxpayer dollars, and support the thousands of civilians
and military employees who work throughout the Intelligence Community.
As I mentioned, this managers' amendment also includes modifications
to the classified annex and the Schedule of Authorizations, modified to
represent the consensus of both congressional intelligence committees.
I am unable to describe in detail the Committee's classified schedule
and annex, but it is available to all Senators for their review in the
Committee's spaces. The Committee has sought to ensure that funding is
authorized to continue and enhance important intelligence collection
and analysis programs, covert actions, and counterintelligence. At the
same time, we have cut funding for programs that were functioning
poorly or at expenditure rates below expectations, and to shift funding
from lower priorities to higher ones.
As always, the Committee has held numerous hearings and briefings on
the President's spending request. As was announced in late October,
intelligence spending decreased slightly in Fiscal Year 2012, and that
trend will continue in Fiscal Year 2013. Our annex contains an overall
funding level that is very close to the President's request, and we
have attempted to find places to reduce spending that will not
sacrifice any important work of the intelligence agencies.
I believe we have addressed all of the concerns that have been
brought to our attention by our colleagues and the public. I thus urge
passage of this managers' amendment and enactment of this important
legislation before the end of the session.
I ask unanimous consent that the section by section analysis be
printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Section-by-Section Analysis and Explanation
The following is a section-by-section analysis and
explanation of the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal
Year 2013.
TITLE I--BUDGET AND PERSONNEL AUTHORIZATIONS
Section 101. Authorization of appropriations
Section 101 lists the United States Government departments,
agencies, and other elements for which the Act authorizes
appropriations for intelligence and intelligence-related
activities for Fiscal Year 2013.
Section 102. Classified Schedule of Authorizations
Section 102 provides that the details of the amounts
authorized to be appropriated for intelligence and
intelligence-related activities and the applicable personnel
levels by program for Fiscal Year 2013 are contained in the
classified Schedule of Authorizations and that the classified
Schedule of Authorizations shall be made available to the
Committees on Appropriations of the Senate and House of
Representatives and to the President.
Section 103. Personnel ceiling adjustments
Section 103 is intended to provide additional flexibility
to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in managing
the civilian personnel of the Intelligence Community. Section
103(a) provides that the DNI may authorize employment of
civilian personnel in Fiscal Year 2013 in excess of the
number of authorized positions by an amount not exceeding 3
percent of the total limit applicable to each Intelligence
Community element under Section 102. The DNI may do so only
if necessary to the performance of important intelligence
functions.
Section 103(b) requires the DNI to establish guidelines
that would ensure a uniform and accurate method of counting
certain personnel. The DNI has issued such a policy.
Subsection (b) confirms in statute the obligation of the DNI
to establish these guidelines.
The DNI must report the decision to allow an Intelligence
Community element to exceed the personnel ceiling in advance
to the congressional intelligence committees.
Section 104. Intelligence Community Management Account
Section 104 authorizes appropriations for the Intelligence
Community Management Account (ICMA) of the DNI and sets the
authorized personnel levels for the elements within the ICMA
for Fiscal Year 2013.
Subsection (a) authorizes appropriations of $540,721,000
for Fiscal Year 2013 for the activities of the ICMA.
Subsection (b) authorizes 835 positions for elements within
the ICMA for Fiscal Year 2013 and provides that personnel
serving in such elements may be permanent employees of the
Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) or
detailed from other elements of the United States Government.
Subsection (c) authorizes additional appropriations and
personnel for the classified Community Management Account as
specified in the classified Schedule of Authorizations and
permits the funding for advanced research and development to
remain available through September 30, 2014.
TITLE II--CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY RETIREMENT AND DISABILITY SYSTEM
Section 201. Authorization of appropriations
Section 201 authorizes appropriations in the amount of
$514,000,000 for Fiscal Year 2013 for the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) Retirement and Disability Fund.
TITLE III--GENERAL INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY MATTERS
Section 301. Restriction on conduct of intelligence
activities
Section 301 provides that the authorization of
appropriations by the Act shall not be deemed to constitute
authority for the conduct of any intelligence activity that
is not otherwise authorized by the Constitution or laws of
the United States.
Section 302. Increase in employee compensation and benefits
authorized by law
Section 302 provides that funds authorized to be
appropriated by this Act for salary, pay, retirement, and
other benefits for federal employees may be increased by such
additional or supplemental amounts as may be necessary for
increases in compensation or benefits authorized by law.
Section 303. Non-reimbursable details
Section 303 amends Section 113A of the National Security
Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 404h-1) to increase the length of time
an officer or employee of the federal government can be
detailed to the staff of an element of the Intelligence
Community funded through the National Intelligence Program
(NIP) from two years to three. In addition, Section 303
clarifies that a non-reimbursable detail made under Section
113A shall not be considered an augmentation of the
appropriations of the receiving element of the Intelligence
Community.
The DNI requested that an extension of the length of
service from two years to three years be made for members of
the Armed Forces detailed to an element of Intelligence
Community. This request was intended to align Section 113A
with requirements for joint duty assignments among the
military. Section 664(a) of Title 10 provides that joint duty
assignments for military officers, other than general and
flag officers, shall be no less than three years. Section 303
provides the flexibility of a three-year length of service to
civilian employees as well as military officers.
Section 304. Automated insider threat detection program
Section 304 extends by one year the milestones for
establishment of an automated insider threat detection
program under Section 402 of the Intelligence Authorization
Act for Fiscal Year 2011 (Public Law 112-18). The
administration had requested a two-year extension of the
milestone for ``initial operating capability'' and a three-
year extension of the milestone for ``full operating
capability.'' The one-year extensions are intended to ensure
that the Intelligence Community moves more rapidly toward
establishment of this program.
Section 305. Software licensing
Section 305 requires the chief information officer for an
element of the Intelligence Community to conduct an inventory
of software licenses held by such element, including those
utilized and unutilized, by the element. This inventory is to
be conducted in consultation with the Chief Information
Officer of the Intelligence Community (CIO) and completed
within 120 days of enactment. Not later than 180 days after
enactment, the CIO shall provide the congressional
intelligence committees with a copy of the reports along with
any comments the CIO wishes to provide. The CIO shall
transmit any portion of a report involving a component of a
department of the U.S. government to the congressional
committees with jurisdiction over such department
simultaneously with submission of such report to the
congressional intelligence committees.
Section 306. Strategy for security clearance reciprocity
Section 306 requires the President to develop a strategy
and process for carrying out the requirements of section
3001(d) of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention
Act of 2004, which concerns reciprocity of security clearance
access determinations across agencies.
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Section 307. Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act
of 2010 compliance
Section 307 requires the DNI and the directors of the CIA,
the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), and the National
Security Agency (NSA) each to develop a corrective action
plan, with major milestones, that delineates how such
agencies will achieve compliance with the Improper Payments
Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010, not later than
September 30, 2013. Section 307(b) requires the relevant
inspectors general to review the corrective action plan and
assess whether it is likely to lead to compliance. Each
assessment is to be provided to the congressional
intelligence committees. The corrective action plans and
inspector general assessments involving the DIA, NGA, and NSA
shall also be submitted to the armed services committees of
the Senate and House of Representatives.
Section 308. Subcontractor notification process
Section 308 requires the DNI to submit a report to the
congressional intelligence committees assessing the method by
which contractors at any tier under a contract entered into
with an element of the Intelligence Community are granted
security clearances and notified of classified contracting
opportunities within the Federal Government and
recommendations for the improvement of such method.
Section 309. Modification of reporting schedule
Section 309 changes the dates by which the inspectors
general of the Intelligence Community and the CIA are
required to prepare and submit semiannual reports on the
activities of their offices from a calendar year basis to a
fiscal year basis. This change will align these reporting
requirements with the reporting requirements of other
inspectors general in the Intelligence Community and
facilitate joint audits, inspections and investigations.
Section 310. Repeal of certain reporting requirements
Congress frequently requests information from the
Intelligence Community in the form of reports, the contents
of which are specifically defined by statute. The reports
prepared pursuant to these statutory requirements provide
Congress with an invaluable source of information about
specific matters of concern.
Congressional reporting requirements, and particularly
recurring reporting requirements, can place a significant
burden on the resources of the Intelligence Community. In
some cases, annual reports can be replaced with briefings or
notifications that provide the Congress with more timely
information and offer the Intelligence Community a direct
line of communication to respond to congressional concerns.
In response to a request from the DNI, Section 310
eliminates four reports that were burdensome to the
Intelligence Community when the information in the reports
could be obtained through other means or was no longer
considered relevant to current concerns.
TITLE IV--MATTERS RELATING TO THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Section 401. Working capital fund amendments
Section 401 amends Section 21 of the Central Intelligence
Agency Act of 1949 (50 U.S.C. 403u) to provide authority for
the service providers under the CIA Central Services Program
to use resources to make their services known to their
authorized customer base through government communication
channels, but clarifies this authority shall not be used to
distribute gifts or promotional items. In addition, Section
401 authorizes service providers to deposit receipts from the
sale of their recyclable materials into the CIA working
capital fund.
TITLE V--OTHER MATTERS
Section 501. Homeland Security Intelligence Program
Section 501 establishes the Homeland Security Intelligence
Program (HSIP) within the Department of Homeland Security for
activities of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (OIA)
that serve predominantly a departmental mission. The OIA is
currently funded through the NIP.
Section 502. Extension of National Commission for the Review
of the Research and Development Programs of the United
States Intelligence Community
Section 502 extends the date by which the National
Commission for the Review of the Research and Development
Programs of the United States Intelligence Community is
required to submit a report on its findings from ``not later
than one year after the date on which all members of the
Commission are appointed pursuant to Section 701(a)(3) of the
Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010'' to not
later than March 31, 2013, which is effectively one year
after the Commission was able to begin its review. The
extension was requested by the co-chairs of the Commission.
Section 503. Protecting the information technology supply
chain of the United States
Section 503 requires the DNI to submit to the congressional
intelligence committees a report that identifies foreign
suppliers of information technology that are linked directly
or indirectly to a foreign government and assesses the
vulnerability to malicious activity of the telecommunications
networks of the United States due to the presence of
technology produced by such foreign suppliers.
Section 504. Notification regarding the authorized public
disclosure of national intelligence
Section 504 requires government officials responsible for
making certain authorized disclosures of national
intelligence or intelligence related to national security to
notify the congressional intelligence committees on a timely
basis with respect to such disclosures. On a timely basis in
this instance does not mean at the exact same time but should
be sufficiently timely to keep the committees fully and
currently informed.
This provision is intended to ensure that the intelligence
committees are made aware of authorized disclosures of
national intelligence or intelligence related to national
security that are made to media personnel or likely to appear
in the press, so that, among other things, these authorized
disclosures may be distinguished from unauthorized ``leaks.''
Section 504(c) provides that the notification requirement
does not apply to a disclosure made pursuant to statutory
requirements, in connection with civil, criminal or
administrative proceedings, as a result of a declassification
review process under Executive Order 13526, or to cleared
government representatives with a need to know.
Section 504(e) provides a one-year sunset for the
notification requirement in this section.
Section 505. Technical amendments related to the Office of
the Director of National Intelligence
Sections 2302 and 3132 of Title 5 of the United States Code
exclude from the definition of ``agency'' under those
chapters certain specifically listed agencies such as the
CIA. In addition, Sections 2302 and 3132 exclude from the
definition of ``agency'' those executive agencies that the
President determines have as their principal function ``the
conduct of foreign intelligence or counterintelligence
activities.'' Section 505 amends the definition of agency in
Sections 2302 and 3132 to expressly identify the ODNI as an
agency excluded from the definition of ``agency'' under those
chapters.
Section 506. Technical amendment for definition of
intelligence agency
Title VI of the National Security Act of 1947 imposes
criminal penalties for the disclosure of the identity of
covert agents of an intelligence agency. The current
definition of an ``intelligence agency'' does not include the
counterintelligence elements of the Department of Defense or
the intelligence and counterintelligence components of other
elements of the Intelligence Community despite the fact that
these components may be conducting counterintelligence
operations jointly with the Federal Bureau of Investigation
or under their own independent authority. Section 506 thus
amends Section 606(5) of the National Security Act of 1947
(50 U.S.C. 426) to revise the definition of ``intelligence
agency'' to include all elements of the Intelligence
Community, as found in Section 3(4) of the National Security
Act.
Section 507. Budgetary effects
Section 507 provides that the budgetary effects of this
Act, for the purpose of complying with the Statutory Pay-As-
You-Go-Act of 2010, shall be determined by reference to the
latest statement titled ``Budgetary Effects of PAYGO
Legislation'' for this Act, submitted for printing in the
Congressional Record by the Chairman of the Senate Budget
Committee, provided that such statement has been submitted
prior to the vote on passage.
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