Selected Contracting Provisions in the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (P.L. 117-263)
On December 23, 2022, the President signed the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This bill included the text of the House and Senate agreed to Intelligence Authorization Act (now Division F of P.L. 117-263), which provides policy direction and funding for the Intelligence Community. Below are some of the provisions in this year’s law that could impact technology and professional services firms.
Sec. 6314. Required policy for minimum insider threat standards.
Requires the Director of National Intelligence to establish a policy for minimum insider threat standards for the intelligence community (IC) and requires the head of each element of the IC to certify that they are in compliance.
Sec. 6319. Personnel vetting performance measures.
Requires the Director of National Intelligence to develop, and report to the Congress on, performance measures to assess continuous vetting and the quality of each phase of the personnel vetting process, including the initiation, investigation, and adjudication phases.
Sec. 6601. Improving onboarding of personnel in intelligence community.
Requires the Director of National Intelligence to establish policy guidance regarding the Intelligence Community’s onboarding process and submit a plan to reduce the timeline associated with the onboarding process.
Sec. 6602. Report on legislative action required to implement Trusted Workforce 2.0 initiative. Requires the Chairman of the Security, Suitability, and Credentialing Performance Accountability Council to report to the Congress on the specific legislative actions needed to implement the Trusted Workforce 2.0 initiative.
Sec. 6603. Inspector General of the Intelligence Community assessment of administration of polygraphs in intelligence community.
Requires the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community to assess and report to the Congress on polygraph evaluations and the workforce needed to meet current annual personnel hiring requirements.
Sec. 6604. Timeliness in the administration of polygraphs.
Requires the Director of National Intelligence to issue standards for the timeliness for federal agencies to administer polygraphs.
Sec. 6605. Policy on submittal of applications for access to classified information for certain personnel.
Requires the Director of National Intelligence to issue a policy that allows a company to apply for a clearance, on a non-reimbursable basis, for certain employees not tied to a specific contract.
Sec. 6606. Technical correction regarding Federal policy on sharing of covered insider threat information.
Makes a technical correction to a government and industry information sharing program.
Sec. 6607. Inspector General of the Intelligence Community report on use of space certified as sensitive compartmented information facilities.
Requires the Intelligence Community Inspector General to report on government and industry sensitive compartmented information facilities (SCIF) utilization.
Sec. 6711. Additional transaction authority.
Requires the Director of National Intelligence to study and report to the Congress on the feasibility and advisability of providing the elements of the Intelligence Community with additional other transaction authorities that are not restricted to the current basic, applied, and advanced research projects and prototype projects.
Sec. 6712. Implementation plan and advisability study for offices of commercial integration.
Requires the Director of National Intelligence to create and submit to the Congress an implementation plan for establishing an Office of Commercial Integration at each agency of the Intelligence Community to assist with the procurement of commercial products and services
Sec. 6713. Pilot program on designated emerging technology transition projects.
Requires the Director of National Intelligence to implement a pilot program to more effectively transition 'promising' products to production.
Sec. 6715. Plan to expand sensitive compartmented information facility access by certain contractors; reports on expansion of security clearances for certain contractors.
Requires the Director of National Intelligence to report to the Congress on the extent that security clearance requirements delay, limit, or otherwise disincentivize emerging technology firms from contracting with the government; and further to develop a plan to expand access to sensitive compartmented information facilities by contractors of small emerging technology companies.
Sec. 6716. Compliance by intelligence community with requirements of Federal Acquisition Regulation relating to commercially available off the-shelf items and commercial services.
Requires the Director of National Intelligence to implement a policy ensuring that elements of the Intelligence Community comply with Federal Acquisition Regulations relating to market research and commercial off-the-shelf technologies.
Sec. 6717. Policy on required user adoption metrics in certain contracts for artificial intelligence and emerging technology software products.
Requires the Director of National Intelligence to establish a policy that a contract entered into by an element of the Intelligence Community will ensure that the provider collects user adoption metrics for assessing the adoption of the product.
Sec. 6718. Certification relating to information technology and software systems.
Requires the Director of National Intelligence to certify that IT and software system contracts entered into by elements of the Intelligence Community are using the most compatible and superior products, and the most up-to-date versions of the products and systems.
Sec. 6741. Improvements to use of commercial software products.
Requires the Director of National Intelligence to issue a policy on the procurement of commercial software products that standardizes terminology and reflect best practices for buying software as a service.
Sec. 6813. Reports on personnel vetting processes and progress under Trusted Workforce 2.0 initiative.
Requires the Security Executive Agent to report annually on the personnel vetting process to include time periods and costs, as well as the status of Trusted Workforce 2.0 implementation.
Sec. 6816. Report on use of publicly available social media information in personnel vetting determinations.
Requires the Director of National Intelligence to provide the Congress with a status report on current use and an implementation plan for the future us of publicly available social media information for clearance applicants.
Sec. 6817. Report on strengthening workforce diversity planning and oversight.
Requires the Director of National Intelligence to report to Congress on the steps to enhance the strategic planning for, measure the progress of, and assess barriers to workforce diversity in the Intelligence Community.