Sec. 909. Independent study on open-source intelligence
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The Director of National Intelligence shall seek to enter into an agreement with a federally funded research and development center or a nongovernmental entity to conduct a comprehensive study on the future of the collection, processing, exploitation, analysis, dissemination, and evaluation of open-source intelligence by the intelligence community. The Director shall select such entity in consultation with the congressional intelligence committees. The study under subsection
(a)shall include the following: Recommendations with respect to the governance of open-source intelligence within the intelligence community, including regarding— whether such governance of open-source intelligence should be assigned to a functional manager or an executive agent, or use another governance structure; which official of the intelligence community should serve as such a functional manager, executive agent, or the leader of such other governance structure, and what authorities the official should have in serving in such role; which official of the intelligence community should be responsible for conducting oversight by the executive branch for open-source intelligence; which elements of the intelligence community should retain capabilities to collect, process, exploit, and disseminate open-source intelligence; how to effectively integrate such collection capabilities among the elements of the intelligence community; and whether to establish a new agency as an element of the intelligence community dedicated to open-source intelligence or to establish a fusion center to co-locate open-source intelligence capabilities of the elements of the intelligence community, including a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of each such approach. Recommendations regarding the requirements processes for open-source intelligence, including with respect to— the utility (or disutility) of a unified collection management process for open-source intelligence for all of the intelligence community; what such a process might look like; ways to integrate an open-source requirements process into all-source collection management; and ways that automation might be leveraged to facilitate open-source requirements and collection management. An assessment of the value of rejuvenating a career service for a professional cadre of the intelligence community that focuses on collecting and disseminating open-source intelligence and recommendations for such a rejuvenation. Recommendations regarding the need to adjust any legal and policy frameworks (including any applicable guidelines of the Attorney General) that would facilitate the collection, retention, and dissemination of open-source intelligence while balancing customer needs with the privacy interests of United States persons. An assessment of methods to use open-source intelligence to support the operations of the intelligence community, including recommendations on when and how open-source intelligence should support such operations. With respect to the data management of open-source intelligence, recommendations on proposed data ingestion tools, scraping capabilities, and other tools and capabilities to collect, process, exploit, and analyze the volume of open-source intelligence, including recommendations on how the intelligence community can increase the speed and security with which the intelligence community adopts open-source technology and unclassified commercial products. Any other matters the Director or the entity selected to conduct the study determines appropriate. The Director shall make available to the entity selected to conduct the study under subsection
(a)the necessary information and materials to conduct the study, including with respect to— accessing secure workspaces; accessing directives and policy guidance of the intelligence community and other policy documents regarding the governance and execution of open-source intelligence; reviewing technological systems used to conduct open-source intelligence collection; interviewing senior personnel of the intelligence community, including such personnel with responsibility for the open-source intelligence mission of the intelligence community; and ensuring that each head of an element of the intelligence community provides the cooperation described in this subsection. The entity selected to conduct the study under subsection
(a)shall consult with the congressional intelligence committees before beginning to conduct such study. Not later than 270 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director shall submit to the congressional intelligence committees a report containing the study under subsection (a), without change. The report shall be unclassified, but may include a classified annex.