House panel approves slate of DHS intelligence reform bills
House panel approves slate of DHS intelligence reform bills
Publish Date: 2026-05-14 17:22:00
Source Domain: www.nextgov.com
The House Homeland Security Committee advanced a raft of bills on Thursday seeking to refine the Homeland Security Department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis and improve its ability to defend against various threats targeting state, local, tribal and territorial communities.
The seven bipartisan bills mark Congress’ latest attempt to shore up the intelligence office after a year of workforce upheaval and longstanding bipartisan pressure for reforms tied to concerns over politicization and surveillance overreach.
A centerpiece measure led by Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas — who chairs the panel’s counterterrorism and intelligence subcommittee — seeks to clarify I&A’s role under the Homeland Security Act by emphasizing the office’s responsibility to facilitate two-way threat intelligence sharing between federal authorities and state and local partners.
Other Democrat-led measures included efforts aimed at updating how DHS handles public threat warnings, shares intelligence and trains analysts. The proposals would push DHS to modernize the nation’s terrorism alert system, increase support for state and local officials facing potential foreign espionage risks and require more standardized training for intelligence personnel on analytic standards, privacy and civil liberties protections.
“It’s no secret that I&A has had challenges in the past. Concerns around mission overreach, political bias and other hurdles have hurt this agency’s reputation,” Pfluger said during the committee markup of the measures. “Yet everyone here recognizes how important its mission is to securing the homeland.”
The Trump administration is seeking to combine I&A and the department’s Office of the Secretary and Executive Management, Management Directorate and Office of Situational Awareness into a single unit reporting to the DHS secretary. It’s not clear how these measures would run up against those efforts. The new structure would not affect its oversight under…
