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HR 1591
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Security Clearance Review Act

To amend the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to authorize the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to make security clearance determinations and access determinations for political appointees and special Government employees in the Executive Office of the President, and for other purposes.

Introduced Feb 26, 2025

Latest action (Feb 26, 2025) Referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

Summary

This bill amends the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to require that political appointees and special government employees in the Executive Office of the President obtain security clearances only through decisions made by the FBI Director. Employment of these individuals in the Executive Office is limited to situations clearly consistent with national security. If the FBI Director denies, suspends, or revokes a clearance for such individuals, the FBI Director must notify the President and Congress immediately. If the President overrides the FBI Director's decision, the President must provide a written explanation to Congress within 30 days.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)

Actions (2)

  1. Feb 26, 2025 Referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned. · house
  2. Feb 26, 2025 Introduced in House

More bills on these subjects (8)

Other bills that carry the most legislative subjects in common with this one (topical discovery — distinct from the procedural related bills above).

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

Text versions (1)

  • Introduced in House · Feb 26, 2025

Only one text version is on file, so there’s no earlier version to compare against yet.

Full text

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

February 26, 2025

Mr. Beyer (for himself, Mr. Lieu, Mr. Huffman, Mr. Magaziner, Ms. Norton, Mr. Goldman of New York, Ms. Tokuda, Mr. Quigley, Ms. Sanchez, Mr. Lynch, Mr. Takano, Mr. Correa, Mr. Carson, Ms. Jayapal, Mr. Subramanyam, Mr. Grijalva, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Tonko, Ms. Scholten, and Mr. Peters) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

A BILL

To amend the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to authorize the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to make security clearance determinations and access determinations for political appointees and special Government employees in the Executive Office of the President, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Security Clearance Review Act”.

SEC. 2. SECURITY CLEARANCE DETERMINATIONS AND ACCESS DETERMINATIONS BY DIRECTOR OF FBI FOR POLITICAL APPOINTEES AND SPECIAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES IN EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT.

Section 3001 of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (50 U.S.C. 3341) is amended by adding at the end the following:

“(k) Political Appointees and Special Government Employees in the Executive Office of the President.—

“(1) Appointment and access to classified information.— Notwithstanding any other provision of law—

“(A) a political appointee or special Government employee may not be employed in, detailed to, or assigned to, the Executive Office of the President unless such employment, detail, or assignment is clearly consistent with national security; and

“(B) any political appointee or special Government employee employed in, detailed to, or assigned to, the Executive Office of the President may not have a security clearance, or access any classified information, unless such security clearance is granted, or access determination is made, by the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“(2) Determination and notification.—

“(A) Director.—If the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation denies, suspends, or revokes a security clearance or access to classified information under paragraph (1), the Director shall notify the President and the appropriate committees of Congress of such determination on the date such determination is made.

“(B) President.—If the President nullifies, reverses, modifies, or otherwise fails to recognize any denial, suspension, or revocation of a security clearance or access to classified information determination made by the Director under paragraph (1), not later than 30 days thereafter, the President shall submit an explanation (in writing) of the reasons for such nullification, reversal, modification, or failure to recognize to the appropriate committees of Congress.

“(3) Definitions.—In this subsection:

“(A) Political appointee.—The term ‘political appointee’ has the meaning given that term in section 4(a)(4) of the Edward ‘Ted’ Kaufman and Michael Leavitt Presidential Transitions Improvements Act of 2015 (Public Law 114-136; 5 U.S.C. 3101 note).

“(B) Special government employee.—The term ‘special Government employee’ has the meaning given that term in section 202 of title 18, United States Code.”. <all>

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