WASHINGTON – Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK), and Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, today released the following statements after the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence passed the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 (IAA) today on a bipartisan 15-2 vote. The bill authorizes funding, provides legal authorities, and enhances oversight of national security threats and our United States Intelligence Community.

“This bipartisan bill provides the Intelligence Community the resources it needs to do its mission while ensuring that we maintain rigorous oversight of the IC’s activities. This year’s IAA responds to important concerns, including by enhancing protections for whistleblowers, and also safeguards our Nation’s critical infrastructure in the wake of the Salt Typhoon compromises.  At the same time, it readies the IC for the future by promoting IC energy resiliency through the deployment of nuclear technologies and enhancing the IC’s ability to detect and counter threats relating to biotechnologies and bioweapons,” said Sen. Warner. 

“I’d like to thank my colleagues for their tireless work on this bill that will go a long way towards keeping America safer and making the intelligence agencies charged with doing so more transparent and efficient. I am pleased this bill includes needed reforms and restructuring to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, restricts the travel of adversarial diplomats inside the United States, and protects Intelligence Community installations by adding further reviews to nearby land purchases which safeguards them against drone threats. This bill passed out of committee on a bipartisan basis and I hope my colleagues will support its passage by the full Senate,” said Sen. Cotton.

The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 will:

• Significantly reform and improve efficiencies and effectiveness within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the broader Intelligence Community;
• Require that visas be denied to certain nationals applying to work at the United Nations if they are known or suspected of being foreign intelligence officers or committing intelligence or espionage activities;
• Prohibit the Intelligence Community from contracting with Chinese military companies engaged in biotechnology research, development, or manufacturing;
• Codify tour and travel restrictions for Chinese, Russian Iranian and North Korean diplomats in the United States;
• Improve the Intelligence Community’s artificial intelligence capabilities and capacity and establish guidelines for the IC’s procurement and use of artificial intelligence;
• Shores up counter-intelligence risks posed by Salt Typhoon compromises of U.S. telecommunications infrastructure by leveraging IC procurement power;
• Strengthen the security of telecommunications networks by establish baseline cybersecurity requirements for vendors of telecommunications services to the IC;
• Establish authorities for protecting Central Intelligence Agency facilities from unmanned aircraft systems;
• Require the Intelligence Community to develop a policy for sharing biotechnological threats with U.S. agencies, allies, and private-sector partners, including on PRC efforts to acquire genomic data;
• Require the Director of National Intelligence to identify sites for deployment of advanced nuclear technologies;
• Establish a fund to support IC efforts to acquire and integrate emerging technologies proven to meet mission needs;
• Prohibit Intelligence Community contractors from collecting or selling Intelligence Community personnel location data;
• Support the Intelligence Community workforce by requiring the Director of National Intelligence to issue standard guidelines for Intelligence Community personnel to document and report Anomalous Health Incidents; 
• Enhance protections for, and congressional oversight of, Intelligence Community whistleblowers;
• Require the Director of National Intelligence to enhance efforts to counter narcotics trafficking with the Government of Mexico;
• Promote transparency by requiring the Director of National Intelligence to conduct a declassification review and publish intelligence relating to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic;
• Streamline the construction of Intelligence Community facilities;
• Amend the Spectrum Relocation Fund authorization to clarify eligibility for Title 50 agencies that utilize spectrum and whose usage could be impacted by future reallocation decisions;
• Protect Americans’ privacy by statutorily requiring procedures governing the dissemination of U.S. identities and corresponding reporting requirements, as well as prohibits the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis from collecting intelligence on Americans; and
• Provide additional reviews for foreign purchases of land near IC facilities.

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