[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 98 (Wednesday, June 12, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S3381]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SA 281. Ms. KLOBUCHAR submitted an amendment intended to be proposed
by her to the bill S. 1790, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year
2020 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the appropriate place in title X, insert the following:
SEC. ___. ESTABLISHMENT OF A HYBRID THREAT CENTER ON
INFLUENCE OPERATIONS OF FOREIGN ADVERSARIES.
(a) Definition of Intelligence Community.--In this section,
the term ``intelligence community'' has the meaning given
such term in section 3 of the National Security Act of 1947
(50 U.S.C. 3003).
(b) Establishment.--The Director of National Intelligence
shall establish a hybrid threat center (in this section
referred to as the ``Center'') to assess and track, in a
cross-discipline and holistic manner, influence operations of
foreign adversaries carried out against the United States.
(c) Composition.--The Director shall ensure that the Center
is composed of individuals from across the intelligence
community who are experts in the following:
(1) Cybersecurity.
(2) Military communications.
(3) Finance.
(4) Economics.
(5) Disinformation.
(6) Emerging technology.
(7) Leadership.
(8) Regional affairs.
(d) Functions.--The functions of the Center are as follows:
(1) To assess and track influence operations of foreign
adversaries, including operations of adversaries carried out
domestically and operations carried out abroad.
(2) To make information available to the public regarding
trends, threats, and tactics deployed by foreign adversaries
to undermine democratic institutions and influence public
opinion in the United States.
(3) To monitor disinformation operations and influence
campaigns of foreign adversaries.
(4) To give the intelligence community and policymakers
greater visibility into nebulous, cross-border influence
operations of foreign adversaries.
(5) To monitor open source information, particularly on
social media, to analyze disinformation campaigns and the
weaponization of information and ensure that open source
intelligence is given appropriate weight in analytic products
of the intelligence community.
(6) To monitor technological trends, particularly important
in cybersecurity and disinformation operations of foreign
adversaries, so policymakers can adapt the responses of the
Federal Government accordingly.
(7) To share information, as appropriate, with allied
intelligence partners on foreign influence operations and
tactics and in so doing establish a two-way exchange of
threat information.
(e) Annual Reports.--Not less frequently than once each
year, the Center shall submit to Congress a report on the
activities of the Center and the implications of such
activities to the privacy and civil liberties of the people
of the United States.
(f) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the Center should supplant existing task forces at
individual agencies that have mandates and resources which
are limited by their particular mission and budget;
(2) the intelligence community and Congress should work
together to resolve existing legal limitations on elements of
the intelligence community to monitor disinformation
operations;
(3) the intelligence community and Congress should ensure
that appropriate legal authorities are in place to protect
the privacy and civil liberties of United States citizens;
and
(4) lessons learned from post-9/11 counterterrorism
experiences should be applied to foreign interference
threats.
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