Congressional Research Service Reports - 22 Matching Results
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- USA PATRIOT Act Sunset: Provisions That Were to Expire on December 31, 2005
- This report examines various provisions of the Patriot Act that were set to expire on December 31, 2005. Their expiration date has been postponed until March 10, 2006. The expiring sections deal with the power of federal authorities to conduct searches and seizures, generally searches and seizures relating to communications.
- USA PATRIOT Act Sunset: A Sketch
- This report discusses the sunset of a handful of communications-related sections of the USA PATRIOT Act and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act on March 10, 2006. The authority of the expiring sections remains in effect only as it relates to foreign intelligence investigations begun before sunset or to offenses or potential offenses begun or occurring before that date. Thereafter, the law reverts to its previous form unless it has been amended in the interim or subsequently renewed.
- Intelligence Issues for Congress
- This report includes information regarding intelligence issues for Congress. The intelligence community, ongoing congressional concerns, and issues in the 109th Congress are among topics discussed in this report.
- Intelligence Issues for Congress
- To address the challenges facing the U.S. Intelligence Community in the 21st century, congressional and executive branch initiatives have sought to improve coordination among the different agencies and to encourage better analysis. In December 2004, the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act was signed, providing for a Director of National Intelligence (DNI) with substantial authorities to manage the national intelligence effort. Making cooperation effective presents substantial leadership and managerial challenges. International terrorism in particular presents a difficult analytical challenge. Counterterrorism requires the close coordination of intelligence and law enforcement agencies, but there remain many institutional and procedural issues that complicate cooperation between the two sets of agencies.
- Intelligence Issues for Congress
- This report discusses legislative initiatives to address the challenges facing the U.S. Intelligence Community in the 21st century.
- Homeland Security Intelligence: Perceptions, Statutory Definitions, and Approaches
- Although the activities involved in homeland security intelligence (HSINT) itself are not new, the relative importance of state, local, and private sector stakeholders; the awareness of how law enforcement information might protect national security; and the importance attached to homeland security intelligence have all increased substantially since the events of September 11, 2001. This report provides a potential conceptual model of how to frame HSINT, including geographic, structural/statutory, and holistic approaches. Given that state, local, tribal, and private sector officials play such an important role in HSINT, the holistic model, one not constrained by geography or levels of government, strikes many as the most compelling. The report argues that there is, in effect, a Homeland Security Intelligence Community (HSIC). While this community may not necessarily be a useful construct from a management perspective, it is nevertheless a community as traditionally defined. Although the HSIC’s members are diffused across the nation, they share a common counterterrorism interest.
- Department of Veteran Affairs: Information Security and Information Technology Management Reorganization
- On May 3, 2006, the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) data analyst was burglarized, resulting in the theft of a laptop computer and an external data storage device that was reported to contain personal information on more than 26 million veterans and United States military personnel. The VA Secretary testified that he was not informed of the incident until May 16, 2006, almost two weeks after the data had been stolen. VA publicly announced the theft on May 22. On June 29, VA announced that the stolen laptop computer and external hard drive had been recovered intact and that, based on a forensic examination conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the files on the external hard drive had not been compromised.
- Intelligence Issues for Congress
- This report discusses legislative initiatives to address the challenges facing the U.S. Intelligence Community in the 21st century.
- Protection of Security-Related Information
- No Description Available.
- Terrorist Surveillance Act of 2006: S. 3931 and Title II of S. 3929, the Terrorist Tracking, Identification, and Prosecution Act of 2006
- No Description Available.
- Privacy: An Abbreviated Outline of Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping
- This report discusses laws making it illegal to wiretap telephones or eavesdrop on other forms of telecommunication and electronic communication, such as email, without a court order.
- Oversight of Dual-Use Biological Research: The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity
- This report discusses the risks involved in federally funding "dual-use" biological research, which can apply to the creation of both biological countermeasures and biological weapons, and the establishment of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) to aid in assessing these risk.
- National Security Letters in Foreign Intelligence Investigations: Legal Background and Recent Amendments
- This report discusses the USA PATRIOT Act, which expanded the authority of four national security letter (NSL) statutes and created a fifth, and the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act that amended the previous legislation.
- National Security Letters in Foreign Intelligence Investigations: A Glimpse of the Legal Background and Recent Amendments
- This report discusses the USA PATRIOT Act, which expanded the authority of four national security letter (NSL) statutes and created a fifth, and the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act that amended the previous legislation. This is an abridged version of CRS Report RL33320, "National Security Letters in Foreign Intelligence Investigations: Legal Background and Recent Amendments".
- Intelligence Reform at the Department of Energy: Policy Issues and Organizational Alternatives
- This report discusses alternatives to the Department of Energy's semi-autonomous national security agency, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its counterintelligence office, the Office of Defense Nuclear Counterintelligence.
- Government Access to Phone Calling Activity and Related Records: Legal Authorities
- This report summarizes statutory authorities regarding access by the Government, for either foreign intelligence or law enforcement purposes, to information related to telephone calling patterns or practices.
- Digital Surveillance: The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act
- The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA, P.L. 103- 414, 47 USC 1001-1010), enacted October 25, 1994, is intended to preserve the ability of law enforcement officials to conduct electronic surveillance effectively and efficiently despite the deployment of new digital technologies and wireless services that have altered the character of electronic surveillance. CALEA requires telecommunications carriers to modify their equipment, facilities, and services, wherever reasonably achievable, to ensure that they are able to comply with authorized electronic surveillance actions.
- Intelligence Issues for Congress
- This report discusses legislative initiatives to address the challenges facing the U.S. Intelligence Community in the 21st century.
- Intelligence Issues for Congress
- This report discusses legislative initiatives to address the challenges facing the U.S. Intelligence Community in the 21st century.
- China: Suspected Acquisition of U.S. Nuclear Weapon Secrets
- This CRS Report discusses China’s suspected acquisition of U.S. nuclear weapon secrets, including that on the W88, the newest U.S. nuclear warhead, since the late 1970s. This current controversy, began in early 1999, raises policy issues about whether U.S. security is further threatened by the PRC’s suspected use of U.S. nuclear weapon secrets in its development of nuclear forces, as well as whether the Administration’s response to the security problems is effective or mishandled and whether it fairly used or abused its investigative and prosecuting authority.
- Intelligence Issues for Congress
- This report discusses legislative initiatives to address the challenges facing the U.S. Intelligence Community in the 21st century.
- Intelligence Issues for Congress
- To address the challenges facing the U.S. Intelligence Community in the 21st Century, Congressional and executive branch initiatives have sought to improve coordination among the different agencies and to encourage better analysis. In December 2004, the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (P.L. 108-458) was signed, providing for a Director of National Intelligence (DNI) with substantial authorities to manage the national intelligence effort. The legislation calls for a separate Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.