Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017

Floor Speech

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Mr. NUNES. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Passing an annual intelligence authorization bill is the most important tool Congress has to conduct effective oversight of the activities of the United States Government. Today, Ranking Member Schiff and I are bringing a fiscal year 2017 intelligence authorization bill to the floor for the second time this year. When enacted, it will mark the seventh consecutive Intelligence Authorization Act.

In May, H.R. 5077 passed the House with a strong bipartisan vote. I am pleased to say that this bill, H.R. 6393, is likewise a bipartisan product that reflects the contributions of all of the committee's members.

The bill contains provisions from H.R. 5077 that won wide bipartisan support in May and, after extensive negotiations with the Senate, incorporates numerous provisions from S. 3017, which was reported by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in June.

Because most of the intelligence budget involves highly classified programs, the committee's schedule of authorizations and the bulk of the committee's direction is found in the classified annex to the bill.
This classified annex has been available in HVC-304 for all Members to review since yesterday.

At the unclassified level, I can report that the total funding authorized by H.R. 6393 balances fiscal discipline and national security. This bill will keep the intelligence base funding at the same share of the Bipartisan Budget Act discretionary cap as in fiscal year 2016 and is consistent with the administration's amended budget request for overseas contingency operations. Furthermore, the bill funds the Military Intelligence Program in line with the levels of the conference version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017.

The agreed text preserves key committee, House, and Senate funding initiatives that are vital to national security. The bill funds high- priority initiatives not included in the President's request and trims requested increases that lack clear justifications. It reflects careful judgments as to which programs represent the best value for intelligence dollars in a challenging budget environment.

The bill will ensure that the men and women of our intelligence community have the funding, authorities, and support they need to carry out their mission and to keep us safe.

Before closing, I want to take a moment to thank the men and women of this country who serve in our intelligence community and thank the families of those who have lost their lives while serving in silence. I am honored to have gotten to know so many dedicated intelligence personnel in the course of the committee's oversight work.

I would also like to thank all of the committee's members--majority and minority--for their contributions to this bill. The many hearings, briefings, and oversight visits by our members carried out during the year provide the inputs for the authorization and direction in this annual bill and ensure the intelligence community remains accountable to the robust oversight of the people's elected Representatives.

I would like to thank my staff, including our staff director--Damon Nelson--George Pappas, Derek Harvey, Geof Kahn, Shannon Stuart, Michael Ellis, Scott Glabe, Jack Langer, Nick Ciarlante, Marissa Skaggs, Bill Flanigan, Lisa Major, Chelsey Campbell, Doug Presley, Andrew House, Steve Keith, and Angel Smith. I would also like to thank our two fellows from Los Alamos National Laboratory--Scott Miller and Phil Tubesing. I would also like to thank the committee's shared staff-- Brandon Smith, Kristin Jepson, and Kimberlee Kerr.

In closing, I would like to thank Mr. Schiff, my ranking member, who has been just a pleasure to work with over the last couple of years. Without his work and his staff's hard work, we would not be in a position today in which we could stand up here with a strong bipartisan product.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to outline the joint explanatory statement to accompany the Intelligence Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2017:

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Mr. NUNES. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

We have four retiring members from our committee this year: Representative Murphy, who was already spoken about earlier, did a great job attending a lot of the committee hearings or almost all of the committee hearings. We also have Representative Jeff Miller, who served on this committee for a very long time and who is chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee; he is retiring. Also, Representative Lynn Westmoreland did a great job chairing our National Security Agency and Cybersecurity Subcommittee. Dr. Joe Heck, who chaired the Department of Defense Intelligence and Overhead Architecture Subcommittee, he is here on the floor with us this evening.

Finally, it is possibly premature, but we may not be able to congratulate Representative Pompeo on the House floor. He will have to have Senate confirmation next year, so I imagine he will be with the committee for a few months. But if we don't get a chance to come down to the House floor before he is approved by the Senate, I want to congratulate Mr. Pompeo. We are quite excited to have somebody from our committee to be chosen in the next administration to run the CIA.

I would urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan, bicameral bill, H.R. 6393.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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