The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on June 22 unanimously approved the Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA) for fiscal year (FY) 2023 to authorize funding, provide legal authorities, and enhance congressional oversight for the U.S. intelligence community (IC).
The IAA, according to Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the committee’s chairman, will ensure the IC has resources, personnel, and authorities needed to make informed decisions on national security threats. The bill also will improve hiring and security clearance processes, and establish an Office of Global Competition Analysis to ensure U.S. leadership in technology sectors critical to national security.
“This year’s bill will enhance the country’s ability to confront our adversaries, including by providing support to Ukraine and strengthening sanctions against Russia,” said Sen. Warner in a press release. “It also takes significant steps to promote U.S. technology leadership and cybersecurity, increasing our ability to compete with China.”
“Finally, I am pleased that this year’s bill drives serious improvement to the IC’s hiring and security clearance processes, so that the IC can attract and expeditiously on-board a talented, diverse, and trusted workforce,” he adds.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., added that the bill will protect national security, technology, and innovation from foreign adversaries, “while increasing our foreign intelligence collection and analysis, as well as enhancing personnel talent and expertise.”
On the China front, the committee said that the FY2023 funding bill will help the IC confront “the growing national security threat posed by China by increasing hard target intelligence collection and analysis, as well as by identifying and exposing China’s online influence operations, leadership corruption, forced labor camps, and malign economic investments in telecommunications and semiconductors.”
Financial details of the FY2023 spending legislation were – as usual for IC-related items – not publicly disclosed.
