The fiscal 2025 intelligence authorization act includes a little bit of everything, from workforce development to assessments of China’s biotechnology efforts.
The bill, which was included in the final 2025 national defense authorization act, doesn’t include any major reforms or headline-grabbing provisions. But it does continue to hammer away at several familiar topics, while pushing the intelligence community to expand in areas like geospatial intelligence and AI security.
Here are some of the key technology and workforce provisions:
Public-private talent exchange
The authorization bill seeks to “enhance” the intelligence community’s public-private talent exchange by extending the maximum duration of the temporary details from three years to five years.
It adds a requirement that any private sector employee participating in the program “shall not have access to any trade secrets or proprietary information which is of commercial value or competitive advantage to the private-sector organization from which such employee is detailed.’’
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence launched the exchange program in 2023. The goal of the program is for intelligence officers to learn new skills and technologies in the private sector, while also exposing private sector employees to how the IC operates.
The program has focused on employee exchanges in specific sectors, including commercial space; artificial intelligence and machine learning; finance and economic security; and human capital.
China and biotechnology
The legislation homes in on the Peoples Republic of China, requiring reports on topics ranging from the PRC’s biotechnology efforts to China’s efforts to evade U.S. national security regulations.
The bill also requires the director of national intelligence to send congressional committees a “comprehensive assessment” on the recruitment and training of individuals who speak Mandarin Chinese. The report is due within 180 days.
Biosecurity and biological threats are a major area of focus for the intelligence committees as well. In addition to the China-specific report, the authorization act also requires a new intelligence strategy on countering U.S. adversaries’ attempts to use biotechnologies “in ways that threaten United States national security.”
It also mandates that the intelligence community to strengthen the role of the National Counterproliferation and Biosecurity Center. That includes ensuring the center is “enhancing coordination between elements of the intelligence community and private sector entities on information relevant to biosecurity, biotechnology, and foreign biological threats, and coordinating such information with relevant Federal departments and agencies.”
AI Security Center
The bill formalizes the National Security Agency’s new Artificial Intelligence Security Center into statute. The NSA established the center last September within its Cybersecurity Collaboration Center.
The legislation carves out two key roles for the AI Security Center: developing guidance to prevent adversaries from tampering with U.S. AI systems; and promoting the secure use of AI within classified nation security systems.
The AI Security Center over the past year has already gotten started on those mandates. Earlier this year, the center published its first piece of unclassified guidance on “deploying secure and resilient AI systems.” Officials say they want to forge relationships with leading AI companies to prevent foreign nations from tampering with their models or stealing their advancements.
Under the intel authorization act, the NSA would not be able to disestablish the center for a minimum of three years.
Polygraph data
Lawmakers have been pushing intelligence agencies to speed up their recruiting, including by streamlining the security clearance process.
One of the challenges for agencies that deal in top-secret work is the time it takes to complete a polygraph examination. A recent industry report estimates it could take anywhere between 30 days and 18 months to get through a polygraph examination thanks to a shortage of qualified examiners.
The latest intel authorization bill includes a new requirement for ODNI to report to Congress on the “timeliness of polygraph examinations.” That data is required to be included in the compliance reports ODNI already sends to Congress regarding personnel vetting timeliness.
Geospatial workforce pilot
The authorization bill also requires the Pentagon to launch a geospatial workforce development pilot. The program is required to “assess the feasibility and advisability of establishing a program to develop a skilled workforce in geospatial technologies, methodologies, and capabilities to support the defense intelligence requirements” of DoD.
The provision was championed by Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.). The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is headquartered in St. Lous, Mo.
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