Katie Bo Williams

The House Intelligence Committee has taken the first public step in its investigation into intelligence community leaks involving aides to President Donald Trump, pressing three agencies to provide information on spying involving 2016 campaign associates. Committee heads Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) revealed that they are pressing the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency (NSA) on aides who may have been spied on through a loophole in US surveillance law and were then subsequently “unmasked” and exposed to the media. The demand formalizes Chairman Nunes’s promise to investigate media leaks of sensitive information, and his recently expressed concern over backdoor surveillance of US persons. Chairman Nunes pointed to former national security advisor Michael Flynn, who was forced to resign in Feb after leaked surveillance of his phone calls to Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak revealed that he had misled Vice President Pence about a discussion of U.S. sanctions.

Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson stumped for a proposed reorganization of the division of his agency responsible for protecting critical infrastructure from digital threats. “We've asked for a reorganization from Congress,” Johnson told the Senate Judiciary Committee during a June 30 on oversight of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). “I know the House Homeland Committee is considering it and possibly drafting language. And if this is something the Senate would consider, I think it would go a long way to addressing both cyber and the protection of critical infrastructure.”

Specifically, Sec Johnson wants to replace the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) within the DHS with a new operational agency tasked with protecting the computer networks that run the nation’s power grid, water utilities and more. The agency, along with many lawmakers, see the move as way to smooth bureaucratic barriers within the DHS. But the proposed reorganization, in the works for over a year, has been a point of tension between the agency and Congress.