Central South Dakota News

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and his colleagues on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence today unanimously passed the annual Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 out of committee by a vote of 17 to 0. This marks the second Intelligence Authorization Act that Senator Rounds has helped shape since he began serving on the Committee in February 2023.

"The Intelligence Authorization Act of 2025 contains several measures that are critical for United States national security which I was proud to help sponsor," said Rounds. "Our Senate bill increases security at U.S. Intelligence Community installations by further prohibiting and penalizing unauthorized access to installations, incentivizes recruitment of U.S. Chinese language specialists to serve in the intelligence community, provides for increased counterintelligence oversight at the Department of Energy by making the head of Energy’s counterintelligence a Senate confirmed post with a six-year term, and increases transparency on UAP-related government programs by requiring further reporting of all activity involving UAPs protected under special or restricted access to appropriate Congressional Committees. I am proud of the Committee’s bipartisan approach to tackling national security problems and securing necessary authorizations for our intelligence community."

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