WASHINGTON – Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Vice Chairman Mark R. Warner (D-VA) released the following statement after Senate Republicans voted 52-44 to confirm Joe Kent to head the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC):

“In May, Congress received clear written evidence that Mr. Kent, while serving as chief of staff to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, sought to manipulate intelligence to match a political narrative promoted by President Trump. His efforts to alter intelligence assessments in support of demonstrably false political claims is not only a gross violation of the solemn responsibility with which the intelligence community is charged, which is to speak truth to power regardless of politics, but it is also a threat to our ability to keep the nation safe. When intelligence is shaped to fit political agendas instead of hard facts, it blinds decision-makers to real threats, sows confusion among our allies, and emboldens our adversaries.

“With today’s party-line vote to confirm Mr. Kent to one of the nation’s most sensitive counterterrorism roles, the Senate missed an opportunity to hold the Trump administration accountable for openly politicizing intelligence – a precedent that, if left unchecked, threatens to erode trust in our intelligence agencies, compromise the integrity of national security assessments, and ultimately make Americans less safe.”

On May 21, the Senate Intelligence Committee received copies of emails indicating that Mr. Kent pressured career intelligence officials to revise and suppress analytical conclusions that contradicted public claims made by President Trump. Specifically, Kent pressed the National Intelligence Council (NIC) to rewrite findings about the relationship between Venezuela’s government and the criminal gang Tren de Aragua (TDA) “so this document is not used against the DNI or POTUS,” and to emphasize supposed ties between the Venezuelan government and TDA. Despite the pressure, the April 7 assessment issued by the NIC reaffirmed the original conclusion that Venezuela’s government “probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States.” Shortly thereafter, the senior career analysts leading the NIC were dismissed from their positions by DNI Gabbard.

Sen. Warner spoke in opposition to Mr. Kent’s nomination on the Senate floor prior to the vote. Video of those remarks is available here.  

WASHINGTON – Today, Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense Chris Coons (D-DE), Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Jim Himes (D-CT-04), and Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense Betty McCollum (D-MN-04) sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard expressing “grave concern” about her recent interference in the independence of the Office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG).

In the letter, the lawmakers strongly objected to Director Gabbard’s decision to unilaterally terminate the Acting Counsel to the ICIG and to appoint a “Senior Advisor” to work within the ICIG’s office while reporting directly to the Director herself. The letter notes that these actions were taken without the approval of the Acting ICIG, in direct contravention of federal statues designed to protect the independence of the Inspector General’s office. Director Gabbard’s actions were brought to Congress’s attention in a letter the Acting Inspector General sent to lawmakers on May 28.

“Your actions violate both the letter and the spirit of the law,” the lawmakers wrote. “Despite your obligation to keep the congressional oversight committees fully and currently informed, our committees were notified of your decision to terminate the Acting Counsel, not by your office, but by the Acting ICIG.”

The lawmakers underscored that Director Gabbard’s appointment of a Senior Advisor inside the ICIG’s office compromised the ability to carry out its statutory mission of identifying and preventing waste, fraud, and abuse in the intelligence community.

“[The Acting ICIG’s] letter also disclosed that you have appointed a ‘Senior Advisor’ within the Office of the ICIG who reports to you but works in the ICIG’s office spaces, which presents significant concerns not only for the independence of the ICIG but also the ability of the ICIG to protect confidential whistleblower information,” the lawmakers stated. “Our understanding is that your decision to terminate the Acting Counsel was made 48 hours after she made inquiries regarding the legal basis for the appointment of the Senior Advisor.”

“Your recent actions undermine this independence and are contrary to commitments you made during your confirmation process,” the lawmakers wrote.

The lawmakers called on Director Gabbard to immediately cease “illegal interference into the ICIG’s operations” and to provide a detailed accounting of the personnel actions and communications that led to these decisions.

The letter concludes with a clear warning: “The ICIG must remain independent of political influence, and we will continue to oppose any attempt to interfere with its work, or silence its conclusions.”

A copy of letter is available here and text is below.

Director Gabbard:

We are writing to express our grave concern with your decision to terminate the Acting Counsel to the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community (ICIG) and to appoint a “Senior Advisor” within the Office of the ICIG without the approval of the Acting ICIG. 

The Office of the ICIG was established by the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 with a stated purpose of creating “an objective and effective office, appropriately accountable to Congress, to initiate and conduct independent investigations, inspections, audits, and reviews on programs and activities within the responsibility and authority of the Director of National Intelligence.”  To protect the independence of the Office, the law provides that the ICIG has “final approval of . . . personnel decisions concerning personnel permanently assigned to the Office of the Inspector General” and “shall . . . appoint a Counsel to the Inspector General who shall report to the Inspector General.”

Your actions violate both the letter and the spirit of the law.  Despite your obligation to keep the congressional oversight committees fully and currently informed, our committees were notified of your decision to terminate the Acting Counsel, not by your office, but by the Acting ICIG.  Her letter also disclosed that you have appointed a “Senior Advisor” within the Office of the ICIG who reports to you but works in the ICIG’s office spaces, which presents significant concerns not only for the independence of the ICIG but also the ability of the ICIG to protect confidential whistleblower information.  Our understanding is that your decision to terminate the Acting Counsel was made 48 hours after she made inquiries regarding the legal basis for the appointment of the Senior Advisor. 

The Acting ICIG disputes your assertion that she “agreed” to terminate the Acting Counsel and described your actions as “contrary to law” and “never sufficiently explained.”  As you testified at your confirmation hearing, the ICIG’s independence is “essential to ensure oversight and accountability.”  Your recent actions undermine this independence and are contrary to commitments you made during your confirmation process.  Therefore, we ask that you immediately provide our committees with the following information:

The justification for your decision to terminate the Acting Counsel to the ICIG.

The justification and legal basis for your decision to appoint a “Senior Advisor” within the Office of the ICIG who reports to you but works in the ICIG’s office spaces.

The identity of the “Senior Advisor” described in the Acting ICIG’s letter.

The names and positions of all ODNI personnel who participated in meetings regarding the decision to terminate the Acting Counsel to the ICIG or appoint a “Senior Advisor” to work within the Office of the ICIG.

All correspondence you have had with the Office of the ICIG since February 12, 2025.

A description of, along with the justification and legal basis for any other personnel actions you have taken with regard to the Office of the ICIG.

The ICIG must remain independent of political influence, and we will continue to oppose any attempt to interfere with its work, or silence its conclusions.

We request that you immediately cease your illegal interference into the ICIG’s operations, and look forward to your prompt reply to the information we are requesting.

Sincerely,

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WASHINGTON –Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Jack Reed (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Chris Coons (D-DE), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, and Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, and U.S. Reps. Adam Smith (D-WA), Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY), Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Jim Himes (D-CT), Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, issued the following statement in response to Russia rejecting a joint U.S. and Ukrainian agreement for a 30-day ceasefire.

“Make no mistake—Putin is stringing the world along but his answers amount to a no while President Zelensky responded with a clear and unambiguous yes. President Trump is making a major mistake by continuing to put all the pressure on President Zelensky and none on Putin.

“Putin continues to push his demands to subjugate Ukraine. He has manipulated and rejected President Trump’s efforts to negotiate a ceasefire and to achieve peace. He has indicated that a monthlong ceasefire might even give Ukraine’s forces a chance to retreat, regroup, and rearm, saying, ‘Does that mean Ukraine will use those 30 days to continue forced mobilization, get weapons supplies, and prepare its mobilized units?’ This comment proves that Putin is still trying to weaken Ukraine so that he is in a better position to win the war, not achieve a just peace.

“Remember, Putin started this war and only he can stop it. He won’t stop until it can be shown that he cannot achieve his maximalist goals. Ukraine needs security guarantees to continue defending itself and the Administration should be working to that end. This includes providing arms and intelligence support to Ukraine to deter Russia and working with allies and partners to support lasting security for Ukraine in the future.

“We all want peace. We’re not going to get to peace unless the president starts putting pressure on Putin and demonstrates strength and support for Ukraine so that they are able to pursue a ceasefire with Russia and negotiate a just and sustainable end to Putin’s war.”

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, today wrote to American domain registrars NameCheap, GoDaddy, Cloudflare, NewFold Digital, NameSilo, and Versign – which were identified in a Department of Justice affidavit as providing domain services to the “Doppelganger” Russian covert influence network – pressing them to take immediate steps to address the continued abuse of their services for foreign covert influence, particularly in the period preceding and following Election Day.

Through the maintenance of both inauthentic social media accounts and websites, the hallmark of the Russian government-directed foreign malign influence campaigns known as “Doppelganger” has been the impersonation of Western media institutions online, including outlets like the Washington Post, Fox News, and Forward. Russian influence operatives have been attributed impersonating dozens of legitimate organizations online as early as September 2022, when researchers at the nonprofit EU Disinfo Lab first identified the network’s campaigns, using misleading domains (such as www.washingtonpost.pm, www.washingtonpost.ltd, www.fox-news.in, www.fox-news.top and www.forward.pw) to covertly spread Russian government propaganda with the aim of reducing international support for Ukraine, bolstering pro-Russian policies and interests, and influencing voters in U.S. and foreign elections, including the 2024 presidential election. 

Citing research conducted by Meta in 2023, Warner noted several ways in which the global domain name industry has enabled Russian malign influence activity, including withholding vital domain name registration information from good-faith researchers and digital forensic investigators, ignoring inaccurate registration information submitted by registrants, and failing to identify repeated instances of intentional and malicious domain name squatting used to impersonate legitimate organizations.

Wrote Warner today, “Information included in the affidavit supporting recent seizure of a number of these domains provides further indication of your industry’s apparent inattention to abuses by foreign actors engaged in covert influence. Specifically, Russian influence actors utilized a number of tactics, techniques, and procedures that – against the backdrop of extensive open source literature on Doppelganger’s practices – should have alerted your company to abuse of its services, including the use of cryptocurrency to purchase domains, heavy reliance on anonymizing infrastructure to access your registration services (including the use of IPs widely associated with cybercriminal obfuscation network activity), the use of credit cards issued to a U.S. company “that has significant ties to, and employees based in, Russia,” use of fictitious and poorly-backstopped identities for registrants, and in at least one instance the use of a Russian address.”

Noted Warner, “While foreign covert influence represents one of the most egregious abuses of the domain name system, the industry’s inattention to abuse has been well-documented for years, enabling malicious activity such as phishing campaigns, drive-by malware, and online scams – all possible because of malicious actors using your services… Given the continued lapses of your industry to address these abuses, I believe Congress may need to evaluate legislative remedies that promote greater diligence across the global domain name ecosystem.”

“In the interim, your company must take immediate steps to address the continued abuse of your services for foreign covert influence – particularly in the days preceding, and weeks immediately following, Election Day. With the prospect of a close election – and declassified intelligence demonstrating the past practice of foreign adversaries in spreading narratives that undermine confidence in election processes– Americans will be particularly reliant on media organizations and state and local government websites to provide authoritative and accurate election information. It is imperative that your company work to diminish the risk that foreign adversaries use impersonated domains to promote false narratives in this context,” Warner concluded.

As Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Warner has been consistently warning about the threat posed by foreign covert influence networks ahead of the 2024 elections. Last month, he convened a public hearing with representatives from Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft examining the roles and responsibilities of U.S. platforms to prevent the spread of foreign propaganda and misinformation on their networks.

A copy of the letters are available here.

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WASHINGTON – Today, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and Vice Chairman Marco Rubio (R-FL), joined by U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL-08), Ranking Member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Rob Wittman (R-VA-01), member of the Select Committee on the CCP, and Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA-06), a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, introduced legislation to require the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to develop a strategy to improve the sharing of information and intelligence between the Intelligence Community (IC) and private companies to mitigate the threat that foreign adversaries including the People’s Republic of China (PRC) pose to United States companies in foreign jurisdictions on projects relating to energy generation and storage, including in the critical minerals industry.

The legislation would direct the DNI to create a strategy for information sharing on foreign adversaries’ tactics and illicit activities to spread disinformation, steal intellectual property, and use other illegal efforts to undermine U.S. interests abroad as related to critical minerals. The legislation clarifies that the exchange of information would be voluntary, and at the discretion of the IC and U.S. companies.  

“American companies have been working to invest in critical minerals projects in the U.S. and abroad in order to reduce our country’s dependence on China and meet the increasing demand for these minerals, which are critical for technologies across society,” said Sen. Warner. “Our foreign adversaries, in particular the PRC, are increasing malicious efforts to undermine U.S. attempts to dominate in this industry. Increasing collaboration between the IC and these companies is a strong step towards ensuring that our adversaries will not succeed in interfering with U.S. projects abroad, and instead help cultivate strong public-private partnerships that will boost U.S. businesses and interests, particularly in areas of technology critical to our national security.”

“At a time when foreign adversaries continue to undermine our national security interests, we must enhance the sharing of information in the critical mineral sector,” said Sen. Rubio. “This bipartisan and bicameral bill will enhance intelligence community efforts to share timely and critical information with the private sector on the pressing threats to American companies in the critical energy sectors.”

“American companies must be able to invest and compete in foreign markets without undue interference from foreign adversaries. The bipartisan Enhancing Public-Private Sharing on Manipulative Adversary Practices in Critical Minerals Projects Act will help protect American businesses in international critical minerals markets from the illicit tactics of foreign adversaries, such as the CCP,” said Rep. Krishnamoorthi. “Securing our supply chains for critical minerals independent of the PRC is essential to our national security, our transition to a clean energy economy, and the competitiveness of American businesses abroad.”

“Unsurprisingly, the Chinese Communist Party is actively trying to undermine U.S. companies pursuing critical mineral projects by spreading disinformation and propaganda,” said Rep. Wittman. “As a senior member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, I am proud to join my colleagues to introduce the bipartisan Public-Private Manipulative Practices Act to enable the U.S. government to more effectively partner with American companies to counter illicit activities from all foreign adversaries that seek to restrict our access to the world’s critical mineral supply.”

“In recent years, foreign adversaries have targeted U.S. companies attempting to procure critical minerals abroad through illicit or deceptive disinformation campaigns, malicious activity, and other forms of economic espionage. Our foreign adversaries want the U.S. and our national security to continue to be dependent on foreign supply chains. That's bad for our national security and bad for business,” said Rep. Houlahan. “One of the impacts to the U.S. is especially problematic — issues accessing critical minerals and developing secure supply chains we need for energy and storage. Passing this bill is crucial to protecting American businesses from spying and other harmful activities, and I'm glad to see it has broad bipartisan support. Our intelligence agencies and the government must work together to ensure our national security is strong, and American companies can get the critical minerals they need from overseas.”

Joining Sens. Warner and Rubio and Reps. Krishnamoorthi, Wittman, and Houlahan in introduction of this legislation are Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-CO), James Lankford (R-OK), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), John Cornyn (R-TX), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA).

This is latest step that the Senate Intelligence Committee leaders have taken to counter China’s dominance in this key sector. Last year, Chair Warner and Vice Chair Rubio hosted government officials and domestic industry leaders for a roundtable discussion on access to critical minerals. During that roundtable, industry leaders asked for more robust government support identifying unfair and corrupt practices by foreign adversaries. Specifically, private sector companies attempting to secure critical mineral projects abroad have faced the PRC’s efforts to spread disinformation to foreign host governments about U.S. companies, steal U.S. company IP, and sabotage U.S. company contracts.

Chair Warner and Vice Chair Rubio have also led efforts to secure supply chains and reduce U.S. reliance on the PRC for minerals that are inputs for critical technologies including through increased government support to U.S. private sector companies investing and operating in critical mineral projects.

“The Enhancing Public-Private Sharing on Manipulate Adversary Practices in Critical Minerals Projects Act will help American businesses respond to deceptive and malicious efforts by our adversaries to crowd them out of critical minerals projects in foreign markets. This act will ensure the U.S. government supports and stands by our businesses abroad in industries that are key to our national interests. We look forward to working with Congress to advance this important piece of legislation,” said Avery Ash, SVP, SAFE.

Text of the bill is available here.

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WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced the Promoting United States Leadership in Standards Act of 2024, legislation aimed at restoring the U.S.’s position as a leader in international standards-setting for emerging technologies.

For decades, the United States led the world in developing new technologies, which allowed our country to set the rules of the road when it came to those technologies’ global standards. However, in recent years, Chinese companies backed by the Communist Party of China have overtaken the U.S., which has allowed the Chinese government to influence standards in ways that further their own interests.

“In recent years, the Communist Party of China has asserted their dominance in the global technology space, and as their status has risen, our authority and influence has fallen,” said Sen. Warner. “This legislation clearly outlines steps we must take to reestablish our leadership and ensure that we are doing all we can to set the global standards for critical and emerging technologies.”

“The Communist Chinese Party has made it their mission to undermine the U.S. and our interests around the globe by exploiting our deficiencies,” said Sen. Blackburn. “As they ramp up their efforts to dominate global standards for emerging technologies, the U.S. must be a global leader in innovation, and that includes setting standards that reflect our interests and values.”

Standards-setting bodies make critical decisions not only relating to technical specifications, but also relating to values, such as openness, safety, and accessibility, embedded in emerging technologies.

Specifically, the Promoting United States Leadership in Standards Act would:

• Require the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to submit a report to Congress that identifies current U.S. participation in standards development activities for AI and other CETs;
• Create an easy-to-access web portal to help stakeholders navigate and actively engage in international standardization efforts. The portal would include a list of relevant standards and information about how to participate in standardization activities related to AI and other CETs;
• Establish a pilot program to award $10 million in grants over 4 years to support the hosting of standards meetings for AI and other CETs in the U.S.;
• Create a report to Congress, after the third year of the program, that identifies grant recipients, provides a summary of expenses, assesses the effectiveness of the program to grow the number of standards meetings in the U.S, and shows the geographic distribution of event attendees.

“The United States must continue to lead global technical standardization. IEEE-USA supports Senator Warner's and Senator Blackburn's Promoting United States Leadership in Standards Act of 2024 to enable necessary increased stakeholder access to the standards development process, especially for those who may not have the resources to fully engage in the development activities. Enabling access for underrepresented actors increases the diversity of voices and ensures democratization of the process, thus strengthening the open markets in which the U.S. is highly competitive,” said Keith Moore, President, IEEE-USA.

“Cisco is engaged in the proper development and deployment of AI across all aspects of the ecosystem, and we firmly believe U.S. leadership is fundamental in the development of global standards for AI and other critical technologies. This legislation will not only foster U.S. participation in standards-setting bodies but also help create a policy environment that unlocks the benefits of responsible and trustworthy use of AI. We applaud the bipartisan efforts of Senators Warner and Blackburn and look forward to engaging them and other stakeholders on this important issue,” said Nicole Isaac, Vice President, Global Public Policy, Government Affairs, Cisco.

“We applaud Senators Warner and Blackburn for introducing the Promoting United States Leadership in Standards Act, which can better position standards development organizations and standards participants for success,” said Morgan Reed, President of ACT | The App Association. “A strong, yet nimble approach to technical standards development is a foundational imperative for ACT | The App Association’s members as they create tomorrow’s innovations. Nurturing open and global participation in standardization activities, especially when hosted in the United States, can address shared technical challenges while advancing American technology leadership.  This legislation represents a decisive step in the right direction. We look forward to working with the sponsors to ensure the language best achieves Congress’ goals as the bill moves forward.”

“XRA is proud to support the Promoting United States Leadership in Standards Act of 2024. Emerging technologies like XR drive economic growth and help the U.S. address strategic challenges like workforce development, industrial productivity, and healthcare delivery. Foreign governments, particularly competitors of the U.S., see immersive technology and other emerging technologies as their chance to shape the future of computing and grow their economic influence. These competitors are actively engaged in the development of technical standards and governance frameworks and understand that early leadership in these bodies yield long-term advantage. Unfortunately, the United States Government’s participation in these critical international standards bodies has not kept pace," says the XR Association’s Senior Vice President of Public Policy, Joan O’Hara. “This legislation will strengthen the United States’ leadership role in the development, adoption, and governance of critical emerging technologies like XR.”

Full text of the legislation is available here. A one-page summary of the legislation is available here. 

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WASHINGTON – With the 2024 election season already underway, U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote to Jen Easterly, Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), pushing the agency to recommit to addressing foreign malign influence in our elections. In his letter, Sen. Warner cited a recently declassified intelligence assessment emphasizing the continuing threat of foreign election influence.

Sen. Warner specifically highlighted the need for CISA to lead efforts to shore up our nation’s defenses, both through physical and technical protections of election systems and electoral processes, and by serving as a liaison between the intelligence community, the private sector, and state and local institutions in order to facilitate information sharing to combat malign influence.

“CISA’s commitment to leading the federal government’s engagement on physical security and cybersecurity ahead of each federal election is crucial,” wrote Sen. Warner. “Since the designation of election infrastructure as critical infrastructure in 2017, CISA has led a collaborative effort to assist state and local governments, election officials, federal partners, and private sector partners in protecting election systems from cyber threats. The complex and often highly varied election processes and systems across the U.S. are markedly more secure today as a result of CISA’s important efforts.”

The role of CISA in combatting election threats has never been more important, as the Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments on Murthy v. Missouri, a case that has the potential to severely limit the role that government officials can play in communicating with private social media companies when it comes to countering foreign disinformation campaigns.

“With the heightened possibility that the FBI may (through internal policy or court decision) be hamstrung in its ability to share threat information with impacted parties outside the federal government, it will be incumbent upon CISA to fill this vacuum – engaging and serving as an interlocutor between private sector entities, the intelligence community and law enforcement, and state and local officials,” concluded Sen. Warner.

Earlier this month, Sen. Warner filed an amicus brief urging the Court to reverse the dangerous decision of the Fifth Circuit that would prevent voluntary information sharing between government agencies and private social media companies in order to better protect against foreign threats. 

A copy of the letter is available here and below:

Dear Director Easterly,

With less than 11 months before the 2024 U.S. Presidential election, and the first primary already underway, I write with growing concern about the Administration’s posture to combat foreign election threats. As the recently declassified Intelligence Community Assessment on Foreign Threats to the 2022 US Elections illustrates, a range of foreign adversaries continue to target our nation’s democratic processes, with the goals of promoting greater social divisions, undermining confidence in electoral processes, and in some cases seeking to shape election outcomes. While the section of that Assessment that provides a prospective assessment for the 2024 elections remains classified, the IC has noted that foreign election influence activity tends to be elevated during presidential election years. Notwithstanding this persistent threat to our democracy, recent litigation by hyper-partisan actors has sought to stymie federal efforts to counter these threats.

The work of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has been pivotal in shoring up the nation’s defenses since 2016. This includes not just CISA’s vital work to assist state and local election administrators in protecting physical and technical aspects of election systems and electoral processes, but also CISA’s efforts to serve as a nexus between the intelligence community, the private sector, and state and local institutions.

CISA’s commitment to leading the federal government’s engagement on physical security and cybersecurity ahead of each federal election is crucial. Since the designation of election infrastructure as critical infrastructure in 2017, CISA has led a collaborative effort to assist state and local governments, election officials, federal partners, and private sector partners in protecting election systems from cyber threats. The complex and often highly varied election processes and systems across the U.S. are markedly more secure today as a result of CISA’s important efforts. However, recent elections have demonstrated the proclivity of foreign adversaries to pursue blended operations, which highlights the need to address election security holistically, encompassing both election interference  and election influence  threats. As the 2022 US Elections ICA highlighted, for instance, Iran impersonated a U.S. violent extremist organization to send emails seeking to intimidate voters, as well as creating a website with death threats to US election officials. Similarly, in 2016 we saw Russia embrace hacking and dissemination operations (which included targeting political parties’ networks and probing election systems), combined with social media-based election influence operations.

In hearings the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence held in 2018, the Senate heard first-hand from senior social media executives how pivotal the Department of Homeland Security’s election security efforts – in conjunction with those of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Foreign Influence Task Force – have been.  Efforts by hyper-partisan litigants and media personalities to rewrite that history – and to falsely characterize these efforts, as part of an outlandish conspiracy theory, as somehow involving efforts by federal officials sought to suppress Americans’ voices – should not intimidate your organization from maintaining this vital role.

The federal government has made substantial – if uneven – progress since being caught flat-footed in the face of sustained efforts by a foreign adversary to interference in our democratic processes in 2016. Far from receding, these election threats have only grown – with a wider array of foreign actors, a larger number of social media platforms suitable for influence activity (and a combination of ownership and management changes reducing the private sector resources devoted to countering foreign election threats), and heightened incentives of many adversaries to shape election outcomes in pursuit of specific geopolitical objectives.

With the heightened possibility that the FBI may (through internal policy or court decision) be hamstrung in its ability to share threat information with impacted parties outside the federal government, it will be incumbent upon CISA to fill this vacuum – engaging and serving as an interlocutor between private sector entities, the intelligence community and law enforcement, and state and local officials.

Sincerely, 

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WASHINGTON – Today, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and Vice Chairman Marco Rubio (R-FL) released the following statements on passage of the Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA) for Fiscal Year 2024, which was included the final National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The IAA authorizes funding, provides legal authorities, and enhances congressional oversight for the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). After the House of Representatives approves the legislation, it will head to the president for his signature.

“The Intelligence Authorization Act plays a crucial role in ensuring that America’s intelligence agencies have the tools they need to protect the American people,” said Chairman Warner. “This year’s bill improves the IC’s ability to track threats posed by our adversaries while promoting much-needed reforms to our nation’s security classification system and expanding the Committee’s efforts to reform the security clearance process in order to attract the best and brightest talent to the intelligence space. I am glad that Congress is coming together to pass this package that meets the needs of our Intelligence Community.                                                                                                                                                                       

“Our adversaries, especially China, Russia, and Iran, are growing increasingly aggressive and collaborative in their efforts to weaken America and degrade the international rules-based system,” said Vice Chairman Rubio. “The Intelligence Community (IC) has a critical role to play in identifying and mitigating these significant threats. This Intelligence Authorization Act strengthens our Committee’s ongoing oversight of intelligence activities, makes important reforms to preserve our American values, and ensures that the IC effectively manages critical resources, authorities, and personnel to protect our national security.

Background:

The IAA for Fiscal Year 2024 authorizes funding for the IC and ensures that it has the resources, personnel, and authorities it needs to protect our country and inform decision makers, while ensuring continued robust congressional oversight. The bill’s provisions focus on the following key areas:

• Increases oversight of the national security threats posed by People’s Republic of China, including its economic practices, foreign malign influence operations, military capabilities, and investments in, and attempts to dominate, the supply chains of artificial intelligence (AI), next-generation energy technologies, and biotechnology, among many others.
• Establishes a new IC atrocities coordinator to increase collection, analysis, and intelligence support to government-wide efforts to hold China accountable for its egregious human rights abuses, including the Uyghur genocide. 
• Improves the IC’s procurement, adoption, and integration of emerging technologies by requiring the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to establish policies for the IC’s acquisition, adoption, development, and use of AI, to create an intelligence innovation board, and to submit a plan for implementing an Intelligence Community Innovation Unit to integrate commercial emerging technologies.
• Enhances insight into the Maduro regime’s imprisonment of United States persons in Venezuela.
• Ensures the IC has a first-class workforce by improving workforce mobility among IC agencies to meet national security needs; and increasing recruitment priorities for candidates with financial intelligence and technical expertise.
• Establishes new requirements for reporting and investigating allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment with the CIA.
• Increases transparency by strengthening Unidentified Aerial Phenomena funding limitations and reporting requirements.
• Promotes reform of the nation’s security classification system to ensure accountability, increase transparency, and strengthen trust between the American people and their elected government.
• Continues to drive improvement in the security clearance process by requiring a policy framework to facilitate the mobility of the Intelligence Community workforce; renewing a report on the number of clearance holders in the government and industry; requiring updated timeliness standards the granting of clearances to reflect progress under the Trusted Workforce (TW) 2.0 initiative; annually measuring satisfaction among agencies, industry, and applicants with TW 2.0; and promoting shared IT among Intelligence Community elements to harmonize their clearance processes.
• Prohibits the Department of Homeland Security Intelligence and Analysis from conducting custodial briefings in certain circumstances, collecting on journalists, and hiring personnel who collect information on domestic terrorism for a period of one year.
• Requires intelligence assessments of the strategic competition in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as assessments of certain cartels.
• Ensures continued support to the victims of anomalous health incidents (AHIs or “Havana Syndrome”) by improving the CIA’s funding flexibility for payments to qualified victims; and requiring each IC element to issue regulations and procedures for implementing HAVANA Act of 2021 authorities.

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WASHINGTON – Today, Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA), Governor Glenn Youngkin, and Reps. Don Beyer (D-VA), Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Jen Kiggans (R-VA), Jennifer McClellan (D-VA), Bobby Scott (D-VA), Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), Jennifer Wexton (D-VA), and Rob Wittman (R-VA) issued a statement following new reports regarding the selection process run by the General Services Administration (GSA) to determine a location for the new headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI):

“We are deeply disturbed to learn that a political appointee at the General Services Administration overruled the unanimous recommendation of a three-person panel comprised of career experts from the GSA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation concluding that Springfield, Virginia is the site best suited for the new FBI headquarters. We have repeatedly condemned political interference in the independent, agency-run site selection process for a new FBI headquarters. Any fair weighing of the criteria points to a selection of Virginia. It is clear that this process has been irrevocably undermined and tainted, and this decision must now be reversed.” 

WASHINGTON – Today, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and Vice Chairman Marco Rubio (R-FL) released the following statement:

“The Senate Intelligence Committee has received and reviewed intelligence related to the attack on al-Ahli hospital in Gaza. Based on this information, we feel confident that the explosion was the result of a failed rocket launch by militant terrorists and not the result of an Israeli airstrike.”

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) issued the following statement in response to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plan to ban new sales of Chinese-based Huawei and ZTE technologies on the bases of national security:

“Several years ago a bipartisan group of senators on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence began raising the alarm about the threat that Huawei and ZTE posed to our national security. I’m proud of the steps that Congress has since taken to confront this challenge, including passing Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019 – which I co-wrote to incentivize carriers to replace Huawei and ZTE equipment in their networks. I’m glad to see the Federal Communications Commission finally take this step to protect our networks and national security.”

Sen. Warner, a former telecommunications entrepreneur, has long been outspoken about the dangers of allowing the use of Huawei equipment in U.S. telecommunications infrastructure and that of U.S. allies.

Last year, Sen. Warner, joined by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), introduced legislation to prohibit federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act from being used to purchase Chinese telecommunications equipment, including from Huawei and ZTE. In 2020, Sen. Warner and a bipartisan group of leading national security Senators introduced legislation to encourage and support U.S. innovation in the race for 5G, providing over $1 billion to invest in Western-based alternatives to Chinese equipment providers Huawei and ZTE.

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WASHINGTON – Today, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) and Vice Chairman Marco Rubio (R-FL) applauded the Senate’s passage of the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (IAA) as part of the omnibus spending bill. The House of Representatives passed the legislation earlier this week. The IAA authorizes funding, provides legal authorities, and enhances congressional oversight for the U.S. Intelligence Community.

“The Intelligence Authorization Act ensures that the men and women of our Intelligence Community have the resources, personnel and authorities they need to keep our country safe while operating under vigorous supervision and oversight,” said Committee Chairman Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA). “The funding and authorities provided in the IAA will increase the Intelligence Community’s ability to detect and counter cyber threats, ransomware attacks, and other emerging threats, including those from adversaries such as China and Russia. This IAA will also reinforce oversight of the IC by strengthening protections for whistleblowers, reforming the security clearance process, and mandating a robust response to reported cases of ‘Havana Syndrome.’”

“Our annual Intelligence Authorization Act provides critical authorities and funding for the U.S. Intelligence Community and its dedicated personnel, who provide our first line of defense to protect our nation,” said Committee Vice Chairman Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). “This year’s Act provides increased capabilities to confront the multitude of threats facing our nation, including the Chinese Communist Party and other autocratic states like Russia, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela; the dispersed terrorist and cyber threats; and also provides the tools for leveraging the commercial sector’s innovation to address intelligence challenges.”    

Background:

The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 ensures that the Intelligence Community (IC) can perform its critical mission to protect our country and inform decision makers, while under robust Congressional oversight, including in the following key areas:

• Increasing oversight and investments to address the growing national security threats and challenges posed by the Chinese Communist Party and its related influence operations, including in technology, infrastructure, procurement, and digital currencies; 
• Improving the IC’s response to the anomalous health incidents (AHI), known as “Havana Syndrome,” by establishing an independent medical advisory board at the CIA, ensuring benefits eligibility and access to expert medical advice and facilities, and requiring protocols on testing, information safeguards, and reporting mechanisms;
• Improving the IC’s ability to adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies;
• Bolstering investments in commercial imagery and analytic services to provide more unclassified collection and analysis to policymakers and warfighters in a more timely manner;
• Continuing the Committee’s commitment to reform and improve the security clearance process, including mandating a performance management framework to assess the adoption and effectiveness of the Executive Branch’s “Trusted Workforce 2.0” initiative; more accurately measuring how long it takes to transfer clearances between Federal agencies so it can be shortened; and creating IC-wide policies to share information on cleared contractors to enhance the effectiveness of insider threat programs;
• Ensuring strong congressional oversight of and protections for IC whistleblowers who come forward to report waste, fraud or abuse;
• Addressing intelligence requirements in key locations worldwide, including in Latin America and Afghanistan to confront foreign adversaries’ efforts to undermine the U.S. abroad;
• Strengthening the IC’s ability to conduct financial intelligence; and
• Supporting the IC’s efforts to assess unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), further building upon the work of the UAP Task Force.

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