Next year’s funding for the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) cleared the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence last week, following a unanimous vote on the Intelligence Authorization Act.
In all, the bill would authorize funding and legal authorities for 2022 while increasing congressional oversight of the U.S. Intelligence services. This funding would guarantee these organizations could perform the critical missions at their core. As for the oversight, part of this would include strengthened provisions for and oversight of whistleblowers who seek to report waste, fraud, or abuse, extending them the ability to contact congressional intelligence committees directly and to be shielded against disclosure of their identities.
Yet, the bill would also extend the Intelligence committee’s actions in certain areas and tools to achieve them.
“Today, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to report legislation that rightly increases Intelligence Community resourcing focused on the threat posed by the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party,” U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), committee vice chairman, said. “The bill also reaffirms the Committee’s critical role in overseeing of the Intelligence Community through provisions that protect Americans’ First Amendment rights, ensure expenditures are made judiciously, and hold the intelligence agencies accountable for their activities. In addition, the bill prioritizes the Committee’s ongoing oversight of China’s malign influence operations, unidentified aerial phenomena, and importantly, the safety of the men and women of the Intelligence Community by expressly addressing the likely directed energy attacks that have inflicted brain injuries and the associated symptomology known as the ‘Havana Syndrome,’ as well as other physical harms, on American personnel around the world.”
Havana Syndrome first struck U.S. officials in 2016 in Havana, Cuba, but has since affected American diplomats in other parts of the world. Its cause and extent remain uncertain. As to the matter of China, the new round of funding would increase investments to address challenges posed by the Chinese Communist Party specifically and bolster intelligence requirements in key locations around the world.
Other matters include improved adoption of Artificial Intelligence for Intelligence work, strengthening means to conduct financial intelligence, investigating unidentified aerial phenomena, and boosting funding for commercial imagery and analytic services made possible by the modern commercial space sector.
“The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 authorizes the funding for America’s intelligence agencies and ensures they have the resources, personnel, and authorities they need to keep our country safe while operating under vigorous supervision and oversight,” Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) said.