§3384 Intelligence Community Counterintelligence Office at the Department of Agriculture

Summary

Creates an office called the Intelligence Community Counterintelligence Office inside the Department of Agriculture. The Director of National Intelligence, through the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, must agree with the Secretary of Agriculture to set it up at USDA headquarters near the department leaders. The National Counterintelligence and Security Center will protect classified information and run the security controls. A Director, picked by the Director of National Intelligence, must be an intelligence community employee with strong counterintelligence experience, serve for 3 years, and be supervised and reviewed by the National Counterintelligence and Security Center with input from the Secretary. The Director will advise the Secretary, make sure counterintelligence and related intelligence reach the right Department staff quickly, set up ways for Department experts (including those without security clearances) to work with the intelligence community, coordinate threat analysis and partnerships, and help with National Security Council engagement when appropriate. The Secretary, working with the Director of National Intelligence, will appoint a Deputy Director who is a current or former Department employee and serves as long as the Secretary wants. Other staff will come from the intelligence community and federal agencies as joint duty assignments of at least 2 years and will operate under the Director of National Intelligence’s authority while assigned. The DNI will pay agencies for permanent moves and may give a 10 percent incentive of base annual pay to employees who join within 120 days after the office is set up; employees who agree to serve at least 2 years and perform exceptionally may get another 10 percent after completing 2 years. With advance approval from Congress, the DNI may use National Intelligence Program funds to renovate and equip space, provide secure communications and IT, assign support staff, and pay other needed services. The DNI must seek to establish the office by January 1, 2025, and must report the plan, costs, and schedule to the congressional intelligence committees and the House and Senate Appropriations Committees not later than 180 days after December 22, 2023.