S-1589 : Still Just a Bill

Damon Paul Nelson and Matthew Young Pollard Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2018, 2019, and 2020

This bill authorizes various intelligence-related activities for FY2018-FY2020 and contains other intelligence-related provisions.

The bill's provisions include

• increasing the maximum amount of voluntary separation pay for Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employees;
• providing 12 weeks of paid parental leave for civilian intelligence community employees for the birth or adoption of a child, subject to various limitations;
• allowing an intelligence community employee who has been subjected to a possible prohibited personnel action to submit a claim to the inspector general of the intelligence community and authorizing the inspector general to convene an external review panel to review the claim;
• allowing a married, retiring CIA employee to elect to receive a reduced annuity in exchange for the employee's surviving spouse to continue receiving payments after the employee's death;
• authorizing each intelligence community element to establish higher pay rates for certain positions that require expertise in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics;
• requiring the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to establish the Supply Chain and Counterintelligence Risk Management Task Force;
• removing the foreign language requirement for certain senior CIA positions;
• establishing the Energy Infrastructure Security Center in the Department of Energy;
• requiring the ODNI to assess security vulnerabilities in state election systems before any regularly scheduled federal election and to brief Congress about detected foreign attempts to influence an upcoming federal election; and
• requiring reports on various topics, such as Iranian support for proxy forces in Syria and Lebanon and Russian financing for global influence campaigns.