S4615-119

What This Bill Does

The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027 is both an authorization bill and a policy bill for the intelligence community. It authorizes FY2027 appropriations for intelligence and intelligence-related activities, a classified schedule of authorizations, $568 million for the Intelligence Community Management Account, employee compensation adjustments, and $514 million for the CIA Retirement and Disability Fund. It reorganizes ODNI leadership and repeals or winds down several offices and programs, limits domestic activity at the National Counterterrorism Center, improves security-direction timing for intelligence-community whistleblowers, requires notification of certain declassifications, changes higher-education foreign gift rules, and gives agencies such as NSA, NRO, DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis, Treasury, FBI, and Commerce more specific intelligence authorities or reporting duties. It also restricts use of adversary unmanned ground vehicles and Chinese products, creates a China-Taiwan strategic warning task force, limits intelligence support for certain offensive cyber operations, regulates IC prediction-market participation, expands Indo-Pacific and Israel intelligence cooperation, adds extensive AI exploitation, targeting, labeling, vulnerability, proliferation, and model-use controls, protects classified budget information, adds CFIUS real-estate review near intelligence facilities, requires intelligence support for the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, protects Federal Reserve information, and tightens economic-espionage and trade-secret protections.

Who Benefits and How

Intelligence community mission agencies benefit from FY2027 funding authority, classified schedule allocations, compensation flexibility, and targeted authorities for signals intelligence, reconnaissance, counterintelligence, AI security, and foreign intelligence support. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence benefits from a clearer leadership structure, management-account authorization, China-Taiwan warning task force duties, AI policy oversight, and classified-budget protection rules. The National Security Agency benefits from explicit authority to correlate, evaluate, and disseminate certain intelligence and to direct and coordinate signals intelligence collection and analysis. The National Reconnaissance Office benefits from authority to use appropriated funds for foreign intelligence activities conducted with and by the NRO. Congressional intelligence and appropriations committees benefit from declassification notifications, FBI case-data reporting changes, ICMA limits, classified briefings, AI reports, CFIUS and Federal Reserve security processes, and other oversight hooks. Intelligence community whistleblowers benefit from deadlines that prevent security-direction delays from stalling protected disclosures. The Federal Reserve and U.S. International Development Finance Corporation benefit from required intelligence support and information-protection processes. U.S. allies such as Taiwan, Ukraine, Israel, and Indo-Pacific partners benefit from intelligence-sharing, strategic warning, and cooperation provisions.

Who Bears the Burden and How

The Director of National Intelligence must implement leadership changes, task forces, AI reviews, analytic standards, dissemination procedures, reports, classified-budget protections, and interagency coordination. Intelligence community elements must comply with new restrictions on prediction markets, adversary unmanned ground vehicles, Chinese products and services, offensive cyber support, AI labeling, AI vulnerability review, and prohibited AI models. Universities and higher-education institutions face a special foreign-gift rule tied to countries of concern and foreign sources. Covered foreign technology vendors, Chinese product suppliers, adversary unmanned ground vehicle makers, and certain foreign real-estate buyers face exclusion, scrutiny, or review. Federal agencies receiving classified budget information must protect it under new procedures through September 30, 2028. The FBI, DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis, Treasury Office of Counterintelligence, Department of Commerce counterintelligence office, and Federal Reserve must absorb new reporting, security, or organizational duties. Economic espionage defendants and foreign instrumentalities face broader trade-secret and foreign-instrumentality language. Federal taxpayers fund the authorized intelligence accounts, CIA retirement fund, fellowships, AI research, and implementation costs.

Key Provisions

• Authorizes FY2027 intelligence appropriations, the classified schedule of authorizations, $568 million for the Intelligence Community Management Account, and $514 million for the CIA Retirement and Disability Fund.
• Modifies ODNI leadership, repeals or winds down selected offices and programs, limits NCTC domestic activities, and improves security-direction timing for intelligence whistleblowers.
• Establishes or clarifies authorities for NSA intelligence dissemination, NRO foreign-intelligence funding, DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis responsibilities, Treasury counterintelligence, FBI case-data reporting, and Commerce counterintelligence.
• Restricts intelligence-community use of adversary unmanned ground vehicles, Chinese products and services, certain offensive cyber support, prediction markets, and prohibited AI models.
• Creates foreign-threat provisions on China-Taiwan warning, biological intelligence, Indo-Pacific cooperation, Ukraine, countries of concern, Israel intelligence sharing, and intelligence support to the Development Finance Corporation.
• Requires AI governance for exploitation, targeting review, policy standards, AI Security Center duties, novel-use reports, clear labeling of AI targeting outputs, AI escalation research, proliferation assessments, vulnerabilities review, and model bans.
• Protects classified budget information, expands CFIUS real-estate review near intelligence facilities, and requires Federal Reserve information-security processes.
• Tightens economic espionage and trade-secret provisions and amends payment restrictions tied to national-security information or approvals.