7. Intelligence Community · Notable
Require agency heads to report intelligence-withholding exceptions to Congress
Printed page 222 7. Intelligence Community
“Under this policy, agency heads should still have the flexibility to withhold intelligence for operational or counterintelligence reasons but would need to report regularly to Congress on the number of and justification for exceptions.”
What has happened
- Not started
The reporting duty the Quote describes rides on the "obligation to share" policy of #587, which does not exist, and no separate requirement for agency heads to report withholding exceptions to Congress was enacted. Congress did revise a neighboring notification: section 6802 of the Intelligence Authorization Act for FY2026 amends section 22 of the National Security Agency Act so that NSA must notify Congress of any "covered intelligence collection or sharing adjustment", defined to include a significant change to NSA's policies or practices for sharing intelligence with a foreign country or organization. That is one agency notifying Congress about foreign sharing, not agency heads reporting the number of and justification for exceptions to a domestic release policy.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- This ask is part of the single negative search that covered the information-sharing asks on p. 222.
- Recorded under the “Congress moved on this ground without granting the ask” pattern used for #572 in the same chapter.
- Action
- create
- Object
- Congressional reporting on withheld cyber threat intelligence
- ID
- 588