Title 10, Armed ForcesRelease 119-110

§435 Limitations

Title 10 › Subtitle A — General Military Law › PART I — ORGANIZATION AND GENERAL MILITARY POWERS › CHAPTER 21 — DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE MATTERS › SUBCHAPTER II — INTELLIGENCE COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES › § 435

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

Limits how the Defense Department can use commercial businesses for intelligence. It says you can’t do intelligence work through a commercial activity unless another law or an Executive order already allows it. Any commercial activity in the United States may only be done as needed to support intelligence work abroad. You can’t run U.S. commercial work to supply the Department of Defense, except when needed to provide security for those intelligence activities. A U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident cannot be put in an operational, managerial, or supervisory role in such an activity unless told in advance that the job is for intelligence/security purposes. United States person: a U.S. citizen or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence.

Full Legal Text

Title 10, §435

Armed Forces, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Lawful Activities.—

Nothing in this subchapter authorizes the conduct of any intelligence activity that is not otherwise authorized by law or Executive order.

(b)Domestic Activities.—

Personnel conducting commercial activity authorized by this subchapter may only engage in those activities in the United States to the extent necessary to support intelligence activities abroad.

(c)Providing Goods and Services to the Department of Defense.—

Commercial activity may not be undertaken within the United States for the purpose of providing goods and services to the Department of Defense, other than as may be necessary to provide security for the activities subject to this subchapter.

(d)Notice to United States Persons.—

(1)In carrying out a commercial activity authorized under this subchapter, the Secretary of Defense may not permit an entity engaged in such activity to employ a United States person in an operational, managerial, or supervisory position, and may not assign or detail a United States person to perform operational, managerial, or supervisory duties for such an entity, unless that person is informed in advance of the intelligence security purpose of that activity.

(2)In this subsection, the term “United States person” means an individual who is a citizen of the United States or an alien lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

10 U.S.C. § 435

Title 10, Armed Forces

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110