House panel authorizes full funding for intell IT modernization

The House Intelligence Committee approved legislation Nov. 21 that would set policy and funding levels for intelligence community programs for fiscal 2014, including efforts to modernize IT and target insider threats.

The measure would authorize full funding for a Director of National Intelligence initiative to modernize and consolidate technology, although it also includes reductions in other areas of IT.

The bill would authorize $75 million to target insider threats in the wake of the Edward Snowden leaks that have embroiled the National Security Agency in a spying scandal this year.

Other provisions in the bill, which was approved by voice vote, would:

• Create new counterintelligence positions.
• Cut space programs by $130 million.
• Increase funding "to improve collection against specific adversaries."

An amendment from Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) included in the bill would order a declassification review of documents seized from Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, after the raid that killed the al-Qaeda leader.

Another amendment, by Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), would expand opportunities for cybersecurity education.

"I am pleased that this committee continues to build upon the good, bipartisan work we began in 2011," Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said in a released statement.