I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 1625 To establish the Office of Intelligence in the Department of Agriculture, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MARCH 8, 2021 Mr. CRAWFORD (for himself, Mr. TURNER, Mr. WENSTRUP, Mr. STEWART, Ms. STEFANIK, Mr. ALLEN, Mr. KELLY of Mississippi, Mr. BACON, Mr. BAIRD, Mr. JACOBS of New York, and Mr. BALDERSON) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and in addition to the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, for a pe- riod to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for con- sideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the com- mittee concerned A BILL To establish the Office of Intelligence in the Department of Agriculture, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Agricultural Intel- 4 ligence Measures Act’’ or the ‘‘AIM Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:52 Apr 30, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1625.IH H1625 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 1625 IH SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF OFFICE OF INTELLIGENCE IN 1 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 2 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.— 3 (1) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle A of the Depart- 4 ment of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994 (7 5 U.S.C. 6912 et seq.) is amended by adding at the 6 end the following: 7 ‘‘SEC. 224B. OFFICE OF INTELLIGENCE. 8 ‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established in the 9 Department an Office of Intelligence. The Office shall be 10 under the National Intelligence Program. 11 ‘‘(b) DIRECTOR.— 12 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Office shall be headed 13 by the Director of the Office of Intelligence, who 14 shall be an employee in the Senior Executive Service 15 and who shall be appointed by the Secretary. The 16 Director shall report directly to the Secretary. 17 ‘‘(2) QUALIFICATIONS.—The Secretary shall se- 18 lect an individual to serve as the Director from 19 among individuals who have significant experience 20 serving in the intelligence community. 21 ‘‘(3) STAFF.—The Director may appoint and 22 fix the compensation of such staff as the Director 23 considers appropriate, except that the Director may 24 not appoint more than 5 full-time equivalent posi- 25 tions at an annual rate of pay equal to or greater 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:52 Apr 30, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1625.IH H1625 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 1625 IH than the maximum rate of basic pay for GS–15 of 1 the General Schedule. 2 ‘‘(4) DETAIL OF PERSONNEL OF INTELLIGENCE 3 COMMUNITY.—Upon the request of the Director, the 4 head of an element of the intelligence community 5 may detail any of the personnel of such element to 6 assist the Office in carrying out its duties. Any per- 7 sonnel detailed to assist the Office shall not be taken 8 into account in determining the number of full-time 9 equivalent positions of the Office under paragraph 10 (3). 11 ‘‘(c) DUTIES.—The Office shall carry out the fol- 12 lowing duties: 13 ‘‘(1) The Office shall be responsible for 14 leveraging the capabilities of the intelligence commu- 15 nity and National Laboratories intelligence-related 16 research, to ensure that the Secretary is fully in- 17 formed of threats by foreign actors to United States 18 agriculture. 19 ‘‘(2) The Office shall focus on understanding 20 foreign efforts to— 21 ‘‘(A) steal United States agriculture knowl- 22 edge and technology; and 23 ‘‘(B) develop or implement biological war- 24 fare attacks, cyber or clandestine operations, or 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:52 Apr 30, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1625.IH H1625 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 1625 IH other means of sabotaging and disrupting 1 United States agriculture. 2 ‘‘(3) The Office shall prepare, conduct, and fa- 3 cilitate intelligence briefings for the Secretary and 4 appropriate officials of the Department. 5 ‘‘(4) The Office shall operate as the liaison be- 6 tween the Secretary and the intelligence community, 7 with the authority to request intelligence collection 8 and analysis on matters related to United States ag- 9 riculture. 10 ‘‘(5) The Office shall collaborate with the intel- 11 ligence community to downgrade intelligence assess- 12 ments for broader dissemination within the Depart- 13 ment. 14 ‘‘(6) The Office shall facilitate sharing informa- 15 tion on foreign activities related to agriculture, as 16 acquired by the Department with the intelligence 17 community. 18 ‘‘(d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 19 is authorized to be appropriated for the Office $970,000 20 for fiscal year 2021. 21 ‘‘(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the following 22 definitions apply: 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:52 Apr 30, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1625.IH H1625 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 1625 IH ‘‘(1) The term ‘Director’ means the Director of 1 the Office of Intelligence appointed under subsection 2 (b). 3 ‘‘(2) The terms ‘intelligence community’ and 4 ‘National Intelligence Program’ have the meaning 5 given such terms in section 3 of the National Secu- 6 rity Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3003). 7 ‘‘(3) The term ‘Office’ means the Office of In- 8 telligence of the Department established under sub- 9 section (a).’’. 10 (2) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 11 (A) Subtitle A of the Department of Agri- 12 culture Reorganization Act of 1994 is amended 13 by redesignating section 225 (7 U.S.C. 6925) 14 as section 224A. 15 (B) Section 296(b) of the Department of 16 Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994 (7 17 U.S.C. 7014(b)) is amended by adding at the 18 end the following: 19 ‘‘(11) The authority of the Secretary to carry 20 out section 224B.’’. 21 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS RELATING TO EX- 22 ISTING FUNCTIONS AND AUTHORITIES.— 23 (1) EXISTING FUNCTIONS OF OFFICE OF HOME- 24 LAND SECURITY OF DEPARTMENT RELATING TO IN- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:52 Apr 30, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1625.IH H1625 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 1625 IH TELLIGENCE ON THREATS TO FOOD AND AGRI- 1 CULTURE CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE SECTOR.— 2 (A) IN GENERAL.—Section 221(d) of such 3 Act (7 U.S.C. 6922(d)) is amended— 4 (i) by striking paragraphs (4) and (5); 5 and 6 (ii) by redesignating paragraphs (6) 7 through (8) as paragraphs (4) through (6), 8 respectively. 9 (B) TRANSFER OF RELATED PERSONNEL 10 AND ASSETS OF OFFICE OF HOMELAND SECU- 11 RITY.—The functions which the Office of 12 Homeland Security of the Department of Agri- 13 culture exercised under paragraphs (4) and (5) 14 of section 221(d) of the Department of Agri- 15 culture Reorganization Act of 1994 (7 U.S.C. 16 6922(d)) before the effective date of this para- 17 graph, together with the funds, assets, and 18 other resources used by the Director of the Of- 19 fice of Homeland Security of the Department of 20 Agriculture to carry out such functions before 21 the effective date of this paragraph, are trans- 22 ferred to the Director of the Office of Intel- 23 ligence of the Department of Agriculture. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:52 Apr 30, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1625.IH H1625 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 1625 IH (2) CARRYING OUT INTERAGENCY EXCHANGE 1 PROGRAM FOR DEFENSE OF FOOD AND AGRI- 2 CULTURE CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE SECTOR.— 3 Section 221(e) of such Act (7 U.S.C. 6922(e)) is 4 amended by adding at the end the following new 5 paragraph: 6 ‘‘(3) AUTHORITY OF DIRECTOR OF OFFICE OF 7 INTELLIGENCE AND COUNTERINTELLIGENCE.—The 8 Secretary shall carry out this subsection acting 9 through the Director of the Office of Intelligence of 10 the Department.’’. 11 (3) COORDINATING WITH INTELLIGENCE COM- 12 MUNITY ON POTENTIAL THREATS TO AGRI- 13 CULTURE.—Section 335(a)(3) of the Public Health 14 Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Re- 15 sponse Act of 2002 (7 U.S.C. 3354(a)(3)) is amend- 16 ed by striking ‘‘strengthen coordination’’ and insert- 17 ing ‘‘acting through the Director of the Office of In- 18 telligence in the Department of Agriculture, 19 strengthen coordination’’. 20 (4) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This subsection and the 21 amendments made by this subsection shall take ef- 22 fect upon the appointment of the Director of the Of- 23 fice of Intelligence in the Department of Agriculture 24 under section 224B(b) of the Department of Agri- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:52 Apr 30, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1625.IH H1625 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 1625 IH culture Reorganization Act of 1994 (as added by 1 subsection (a)(1)). 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:52 Apr 30, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1625.IH H1625 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS