Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021

Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021

This bill authorizes various intelligence-related activities for FY2021 and contains other related provisions.

The bill's provisions include

• requiring the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and other intelligence agencies to establish continuity of operations plans;
• requiring the ODNI to establish the Social Media Data and Threat Analysis Center;
• establishing that disclosure of a whistleblower's personally identifiable information may constitute a personnel action and giving the whistleblower a right to sue if such a personnel action was a reprisal against whistleblowing activity;
• establishing that it is unlawful for a federal government employee to share a whistleblower complaint submitted to the intelligence community inspector general with the subject of the complaint, with limited exceptions;
• establishing that a qualifying individual shall have a statutory right to appeal a decision related to that individual's access to classified information;
• establishing funds for grants to promote U.S. competitiveness in fifth-generation wireless technology supply chains and to support the adoption of secure and trusted telecommunications technologies in key markets globally; and
• requiring a presidential campaign to notify the Federal Bureau of Investigation of certain foreign contacts.

The bill also requires reports on topics including (1) signals intelligence collection priorities, (2) use of student loan repayment benefits by intelligence community personnel, (3) a plan for establishing an intelligence community element in the U.S. Space Force, (4) the corrupt activities of Chinese Communist Party officials and Eastern European oligarchs, and (5) the effect of lifting the United Nations arms embargo on Iran.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov