10 U.S.C. § 429a — Expenditure of funds for Department of Defense intelligence and counterintelligence activities

(a) In General Subject to the limits in subsections (b) and (c), the Secretary of Defense may spend money set aside for the Military Intelligence Program on intelligence and counterintelligence activities. The Secretary can use this money for any purpose the Secretary decides is proper, as long as it involves an intelligence or counterintelligence matter that is confidential, extraordinary, or an emergency. Once the Secretary makes that decision, it is final — the government's accounting officers cannot second-guess it. (b) Limitation on Amount The Secretary cannot spend more than 5 percent of that Military Intelligence Program money in a fiscal year on these confidential, extraordinary, or emergency objects — unless two things happen first. The Secretary must tell the congressional defense committees and the congressional intelligence committees that this spending is planned and why. And at least 30 days must pass after that notice before the Secretary spends the money. (c) Certification For every expenditure made under this section, the Secretary must certify that the money was spent for something confidential, extraordinary, or of an emergency nature. (d) Report By December 31 of each year, the Secretary of Defense must send the congressional defense committees and the congressional intelligence committees a report. It must cover the expenditures made under this section during the fiscal year before the report. For each expenditure, the report must include a description, its purpose, the program element it came from, and the certification required by subsection (c). (e) Limitation on Delegations The Secretary of Defense cannot hand off this authority to someone else for any single expenditure over $200,000. Only the Secretary can approve spending above that amount. (f) Nonapplication of Section 127 This section's authority is the only way the Secretary of Defense can spend Military Intelligence Program money on confidential, extraordinary, or emergency intelligence and counterintelligence objects. No other authority — including section 127 — can be used for that purpose instead. (g) Congressional Intelligence Committees Defined In this section, "congressional intelligence committees" means two specific committees: the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate, and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives.