§665a Intelligence and cybersecurity diversity fellowship program

Summary

Creates a diversity fellowship for intelligence and cybersecurity run by the Secretary. Eligible students get a paid internship at the Department that focuses on intelligence or cybersecurity, help paying tuition, and—if they graduate and finish the program—an offer for a job in the Department’s excepted service. If they accept the job, the Secretary must hire them without following most of the usual hiring rules in subchapter I of chapter 33 of title 5, except for section 3328 of that title. To join, a person must be a U.S. citizen, have at least a 3.2 GPA on a 4.0 scale when they apply, be a socially disadvantaged individual (see 13 C.F.R. §124.103), and be a college sophomore, junior, or senior. The Secretary must send a report to the named congressional committees not later than 1 year after December 27, 2020, and every year after. Each report must describe outreach and recruiting, list how many students took part by school and whether their work was intelligence or cybersecurity, and say how many accepted job offers and where in the Department they were placed. The law also defines these terms in one line each: the named congressional committees; “excepted service” (see 5 U.S.C. 2103); “historically Black college or university” (see 20 U.S.C. 1061); “institution of higher education” (see 20 U.S.C. 1001); and “minority-serving institution” (see 20 U.S.C. 1067q(a)).