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H.R. 3180: Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018

Jul 24, 2017 at 6:54 p.m. ET. On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended in the House.

This was a vote to pass H.R. 3180 (115th) in the House. The federal budget process occurs in two stages: appropriations and authorizations. This is an authorization bill, which directs how federal funds should or should not be used. (It does not set overall spending limits, however, which are the subject of appropriations bills.) Authorizations are typically made for single fiscal years (October 1 through September 30 of the next year) but are often renewed in subsequent law. This vote was taken under a House procedure called “suspension of the rules” which is typically used to pass non-controversial bills. Votes under suspension require a 2/3rds majority. A failed vote under suspension can be taken again.

It was not the final House vote on the bill. See the history of H.R. 3180 (115th) for further details.

H.R. 3180 authorizes appropriations for intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the U.S. government for fiscal year 2018. The bill authorizes funds for the intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the: Office of the Director of National Intelligence; Central Intelligence Agency; Department of Defense; Defense Intelligence Agency; National Security Agency; the Departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force; Coast Guard; Department of State; Department of Treasury; Department of Energy; Department of Justice; Federal Bureau of Investigation; Drug Enforcement Administration; National Reconnaissance Office; National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency; and, the Department of Homeland Security. The amounts authorized by the bill for these elements for the conduct of intelligence activities are specified in a classified schedule of authorizations, which is incorporated by Section 102 of the bill, and explained in in a classified annex. Both the schedule of authorizations and accompanying classified annex have been available for Members to review since the bill was reported on July 13. H.R. 3180 makes no changes to any surveillance authorities, including those set to expire later this year, which will be addressed in separate legislation. Select provisions of the unclassified portion of H.R. 3180 are as follows:

Intelligence Community Management Account (ICMA): The bill authorizes approximately $527 million for the ICMA. The ICMA provides fundingfor the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to manage the intelligence community.

CIA Retirement and Disability System: The bill authorizes $514 million for the CIA Retirement and Disability Fund for fiscal year 2018.

Contractors: The bill prohibits the head of an element of the Intelligence Community from preventing a contractor from contacting or meeting with the congressional intelligence committees.

National Security Agency: The bill requires the General Counsel of the National Security Agency to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The change shall apply to any person appointed after January 21, 2021.

Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Responsibilities: Section 412 requires some functions currently performed by the DIA to be transferred to other agencies. This will allow DIA to fully focus on its mission of providing intelligence on foreign militaries and operating environments. Specifically, the bill transfers the Information Review Task Force and the Watchlisting Branch to the the Joint Staff, eliminates the Identity Intelligence Project Office and the Counter-Threat Finance Program, and transfers the National Intelligence University to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) effective October 2020.

Russia: The DNI is required to provide a report containing an analytical assessment of the most significant Russian influence campaigns, if any, conducted in the last 3 years. The DNI is also required to provide a report containing an assessment of threat finance relating to Russia. Further, the DNI is required to make publicly available an advisory report on foreign counterintelligence and cybersecurity threats to election campaigns for federal offices.

Reports: The bill also requires reports on the following: investigations of unauthorized public disclosures of classified information; security clearance processing times; expanding CIA’s protective services jurisdiction; national security risks associated with foreign investments; the potential of a voluntary cyber exchange program between the IC and private technology companies; and practices and procedures relating to whistleblower matters.

Source: Republican Policy Committee

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Totals

All Votes R D
Yea 60%
 
 
241
211
 
30
 
Nay 40%
 
 
163
10
 
153
 
Not Voting
 
 
29
18
 
11
 

Failed. 2/3 Required. Source: house.gov.

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Each hexagon represents one congressional district. Dark shaded hexes are Yea votes.

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Notes: The Speaker’s Vote?
The Speaker of the House is not required to vote in “ordinary legislative proceedings, except when such vote would be decisive.” In practice, this means the Speaker of the House rarely votes and only does so when it is politically useful. When the Speaker declines to vote, he or she is simply omitted from the roll call by the House Clerk. (See House Rules, Rule I(7).)
“Aye” or “Yea”?

“Aye” and “Yea” mean the same thing, and so do “No” and “Nay”. Congress uses different words in different sorts of votes.

The U.S. Constitution says that bills should be decided on by the “yeas and nays” (Article I, Section 7). Congress takes this literally and uses “yea” and “nay” when voting on the final passage of bills.

All Senate votes use these words. But the House of Representatives uses “Aye” and “No” in other sorts of votes.

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Study Guide

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You can find answers to most of the questions below here on the vote page. For a guide to understanding the bill this vote was about, see here.

What was the procedure for this vote?

  1. What was this vote on?

    2. Not all votes are meant to pass legislation. In the Senate some votes are not about legislation at all, since the Senate must vote to confirm presidential nominations to certain federal positions.

    This vote is related to a bill. However, that doesn’t necessarily tell you what it is about. Congress makes many decisions in the process of passing legislation, such as on the procedures for debating the bill, whether to change the bill before voting on passage, and even whether to vote on passage at all.

    You can learn more about the various motions used in Congress at EveryCRSReport.com. If you aren’t sure what the House was voting on, try seeing if it’s on this list.

  2. What is the next step after this vote?

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    For this question it may help to briefly examine the bill itself.

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  1. What trends do you see in this vote?

    2. Members of Congress side together for many reasons beside being in the same political party, especially so for less prominent legislation or legislation specific to a certain region. What might have determined how the roll call came out in this case? Does it look like Members of Congress voted based on party, geography, or some other reason?

    One tool that will be helpful in answering this question is the cartogram at the top of the page. A cartogram is a stylized map of the United States that shows each district as an identical hexagon. This view allows you to see the how the representatives from each district voted arranged by their geography and colored by their political party. What trends can you see in the cartogram for this vote?

  2. How did your representative vote?

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