7. Intelligence Community · Notable · Needs Congress
Give the FBI added resources and authorities as lead counterintelligence agency
Printed page 218 7. Intelligence Community
“At the same time, the FBI requires significant additional resources and legal authorities to fulfill its statutory role as the lead operational counterintelligence agency in dealing with the ever-growing threats posed by our adversaries.”
What has happened
- Not started
Requires Congress. The Intelligence Authorization Act for FY2026 legislates on the FBI at sections 6521-6524, but every provision is a notification or reporting duty — notice to Congress of counterintelligence assessments and investigations of federal candidates and officeholders, watchlist-change notice, an annual report on U.S. persons on the terrorist watch list, and an annual case-data report. None adds resources or legal authorities for the FBI's role as lead operational counterintelligence agency. The FY2026 Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations act (P.L. 119-74) contains no counterintelligence provision at all.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- This ask needs an act of Congress: nothing was enacted that grants the FBI resources or authorities on this ask, so not started. The Act is attached as Evidence because it is the authorization vehicle that would have carried such a grant and did not.
- The enrolled text of P.L. 119-74 (Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water; Interior appropriations, 2026) was searched for “counterintelligence”: zero hits.
- This ask is part of the single negative search that covered the counterintelligence asks on p. 218.
- Action
- expand
- Object
- FBI counterintelligence resources and legal authorities
- ID
- 581