S.Amdt. 6373

SA 6373, proposed by Mr. Cotton and Mr. Warner for bill S. 4784, establishes the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027. Its purpose is to manage the funding, organization, and operational rules for the United States intelligence community.

Key changes and additions include:

• Funding and Personnel: It authorizes fiscal year 2027 appropriations, specifically $568 million for the Intelligence Community Management Account and $514 million for the CIA Retirement and Disability Fund. It also modifies appointment processes for certain high-level officials.

• Organizational Changes: The amendment transfers the National Intelligence University to the National Defense University and repeals the Intelligence Community Innovation Unit, the Joint Intelligence Community Council, and the National Intelligence Management Council.

• Operational Restrictions and Oversight:

  • It clarifies that the Director of National Intelligence lacks subpoena, police, or law enforcement powers.
  • It mandates objective analytic standards for intelligence products to prevent political influence.
  • It creates the "Ben Sasse Intelligence Community Technology Fellowship Program" for employees to train at nongovernmental technology entities.

• Foreign Policy and Security Priorities:

  • It prioritizes countering hostile foreign cyber actors, such as Huione Group and Prince Group.
  • It creates the China-Taiwan Strategic Warning Task Force to monitor Chinese military aggression against Taiwan.
  • It increases intelligence support and sharing for Ukraine and Israel, including rules for notifying Congress if support is reduced.
  • It bans unmanned ground vehicles from "covered foreign countries," which include North Korea, Iran, Russia, and China.

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) Governance:

  • It establishes a pilot program to share threat information with private AI developers ("covered persons").
  • It requires reviews of AI workflows for lethal targeting decisions, mandates that AI-generated intelligence for lethal targeting be clearly labeled with the model and task used, and requires a process to correct AI biases and errors.
  • It sets rules for agentic AI systems regarding identity and access management reviews.
  • It creates a research test-bed for academic and private security research on AI.
  • It mandates reports to Congress on novel AI uses and research into how AI could cause inadvertent escalation with foreign actors.
  • It prioritizes tracking controlled AI technology, such as model weights and semiconductors, to keep them from adversaries.
  • It evaluates how the Vulnerabilities Equities Process manages AI security weaknesses.

• Prohibitions and Legal Updates:

  • It bans covered AI applications on national security systems that generate non-consensual intimate images or child pornography.
  • It expands criminal laws for trade secret theft and economic espionage, adding penalties for inciting espionage and transmitting trade secrets outside the U.S.
  • It removes statutes of limitations for certain espionage indictments.
  • It updates the definition of the Armed Forces to include the Space Force.
  • It expands Parental Bereavement Leave to cover the loss of an unborn child.