Why You Should Pay Close Attention to the Intelligence Authorization Bill

By Walter Pincus

Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist Walter Pincus is a contributing senior national security columnist for The Cipher Brief. He spent forty years at The Washington Post, writing on topics that ranged from nuclear weapons to politics. He is the author of Blown to Hell: America's Deadly Betrayal of the Marshall Islanders. Pincus won an Emmy in 1981 and was the recipient of the Arthur Ross Award from the American Academy for Diplomacy in 2010.  He was also a team member for a Pulitzer Prize in 2002 and the George Polk Award in 1978.  

The fiscal 2020 Intelligence Authorization Bill, that recently passed the House by an overwhelming 397-to-31 vote, contains provisions that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said would call for “new notification requirements regarding covert or overt efforts by foreign governments to undermine trusted institutions or to interfere in the democratic process, our own or those of other nations.”

Although ranking Republican Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) has strongly challenged Schiff’s plan to continue investigating Russian involvement with President Trump’s 2016 election, Nunes agreed to a provision added to the bill in advance of the 2020 elections that would require the Intelligence Community to brief the congressional leadership as well as the Intelligence, Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees within 14 days of determining that “a significant foreign cyber intrusion or active measures campaign intended to influence an upcoming election for any Federal office has occurred or is occurring.”

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