House Intel forwards Intelligence Authorization Act

This year’s policy bill for the intelligence community focuses heavily on Russia’s war in Ukraine, establishing a coordinator to track Russian war crimes and directing agencies to focus on Russian and Chinese efforts across the globe.

The House Intelligence Committee approved the bill, the Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA), by voice vote Wednesday morning, leaving it awaiting consideration by the full House.  

“The war in Ukraine has demonstrated the immense contribution the Intelligence Community can make to our national security and to our allies, and this year’s IAA ensures we will be ready for the next crisis as well,” committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said in a statement.

The bill establishes a “Russian atrocities coordinator” who will be tasked with identifying and disseminating intelligence about potential Russian war crimes. The direction comes as the International Criminal Court is eyeing bringing its first case against Russia as soon as this winter, according to reporting from Bloomberg on Wednesday.

The bill also calls for a review of the U.S. response to the war in Ukraine and continued monitoring of any Chinese support for Russian efforts there. 

“This includes any steps taken by China to help Russia evade the full weight of global sanctions or to provide military assistance to Russia’s war,” the committee said in a press release.

The bill similarly directs monitoring of China’s and Russia’s attempts to gain influence in Latin America and the Caribbean and Iran’s use of unmanned aircraft systems.

The bill also requires review of broader issues, including establishing a Social Media Data and Threat Analysis Center that will coordinate with social media companies to monitor and assess foreign malign activities on the internet. 

“The Center must determine which categories of social media data and metadata are valuable indicators of these foreign malign activities and, critically, how they can be shared in a manner that protects the privacy and civil liberties of all Americans,” the committee said in a press release.

A similar effort at the Department of Homeland Security — which would have established a board to review ongoing disinformation efforts to set civil liberties guardrails — was widely panned by Republicans earlier this year, pushing the agency to ultimately “pause” the board’s work.

The bill also directs a review of the last five years of counterterrorism strikes “on targets outside areas of active hostilities” following reports of numerous deaths of civilians during operations.

The legislation also directs the Government Accountability Office to study classified information about unidentified aerial phenomena “that may further the broader IC effort to understand and explain UAPs — including the implications they may have for our national security.”