Bill proposes giving more authority to Intelligence Community Inspector General

Legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR) and U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R- IA) would provide the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community with critical law enforcement authority to carry out its oversight mission, lawmakers said.

The Intelligence Community Inspector General Parity Act of 2026, would put the IC IG on par with inspectors general who have federal law enforcement authorities from the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Interior Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Justice, Labor, Veterans’ Affairs, Transportation and State, as well as the Agency for International Development, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Federal Emergency Management Agency, General Services Administration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Office of Personnel Management, Railroad Retirement Board, Small Business Administration, Social Security Administration, and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

“The classified environment can provide wrongdoers a false sense of security in their ability to skirt oversight,” Crawford, the chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said. “This overdue, common-sense bill will allow the Intelligence Community’s Inspector General to enforce a culture of accountability where wrongdoers can no longer hide behind the veil of classification. The IC IG serves as the critical watchdog of the Intelligence Community, tasked with independently investigating fraud, waste, abuse, and misconduct, and must be set up for success.”

Currently, the IC IG lacks the ability to build a criminal case against those in the IC accused of wrongdoing, the Congressmen said. This legislation would allow the IC IG to more effectively identify fraud, waste and mismanagement across the intelligence community. The classified nature of the Intelligence Community’s work presents obstacles to building cases like other inspectors general, the lawmakers said, which is a factor in the DOJ declining to investigate more than 75 percent of the cases referred to them by the IC IG.

“Inspectors general shouldn’t have to operate with one hand tied behind their backs. It’s common sense that the Intelligence Community Inspector General ought to receive the same law enforcement authority as the other cabinet-level watchdogs. Our legislation closes this loophole so the Intel IG can conduct effective oversight of the intelligence community, including criminal violations,” Grassley, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said.