§3371 Required Counterintelligence Assessments, Briefings, Notifications, and Reports

Summary

The Director of National Intelligence must put an online advisory report about foreign intelligence and cyber threats to campaigns for Federal office. The DNI must work with the FBI Director and the Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis. Each advisory must describe the threats, offer best practices campaigns can use, and point to public resources (including government help). Normally the report must be posted at least 1 year before the election. For elections in 2020, the first report had to be posted no later than 60 days after December 20, 2020. The reports should use the most current information and can be updated. If the FBI Director and the DHS Under Secretary jointly find a campaign faces a heightened threat, they may share extra information with that campaign while protecting intelligence sources and methods. Within 45 days after a Federal election cycle ends, the DNI must assess any information that a foreign government or someone working for one tried to interfere in elections during that cycle. The DNI must send the findings and supporting information to the President, the Secretaries of State, the Treasury, Defense, and Homeland Security, the Attorney General, and Congress. The assessment must, as fully as possible, identify what happened, who was involved, and which foreign government sponsored or supported it. The DNI must then make those findings public within 60 days after the cycle ends, as much as possible without revealing sources or methods. A "Federal election cycle" runs from the day after a regular general election until the next regular general election. This requirement started with the cycle that began in November 2018 and continues for later cycles.