Two provisions authored by Rep. Bill Keating passed the US House of Representatives today as part of H.R. 4127, the Intelligence Authorization Act for FY2016. Rep. Keating is the Ranking Member of the Terrorism Subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as a Member of the Homeland Security Committee where he sits on the Counterterrorism and Intelligence Subcommittee.
The first Keating provision requires the Director of National Intelligence to report to Congress on the intelligence being shared between the US and European Union (EU) and North Atlantic Treaty Organizations (NATO) members with respect to the travel of foreign fighters, with particular attention to their travel to and from Iraq and Syria.
The second Keating provision maintains the FBI's current reporting requirement regarding implementing information-sharing principles. This reporting requirement is the result of a previous provision authored by Rep. Keating in response to the Boston Marathon attacks.
Both provisions had overwhelming bipartisan support.
Said Rep. Keating:
"As we learned in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, information sharing -- between our domestic agencies and international partners -- is critical to ensuring our nation is as secure as possible. Over 20,000 foreign fighters have traveled to join rebel or terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria, including ISIS and al-Qaeda affiliates like al-Nusra. Their movements are proving increasingly difficult to track in our globalized world, particularly given the uneven or nonexistent tracking efforts from our foreign partners. We saw this most recently in Paris.
"The inability or unwillingness of some foreign governments to pass along even the most basic information about these individuals represents a major risk to the safety of the American people. An additional threat looms when some of these individuals return to their homelands, many in Europe, from Iraq and Syria battle-hardened and radicalized. Coming from a European nation, they can then travel to America with great ease.
"My provisions address these blind spots from two different angles. First, ensuring that our intelligence sharing with EU and NATO partners is increased and second, that we continue our already improved information sharing requirements between domestic security agencies."