10 U.S.C. § 6225 — Notice to congressional committees of certain security and counterintelligence failures within atomic energy defense programs

(a) Required notification. The Secretary of Energy must notify the Senate and House Armed Services Committees about each significant atomic-energy-defense intelligence loss. The Secretary may provide the notification only after consulting, as appropriate, with the Director of National Intelligence and the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
(b) Significant atomic-energy-defense intelligence losses. In this section, “significant atomic energy defense intelligence loss” means a national-security or counterintelligence failure, or a compromise of classified information^*, at a Department of Energy facility or at a facility operated by a Department contractor that the Secretary considers likely to cause significant harm or damage to the national-security interests of the United States. This section does not otherwise define “significant atomic energy defense intelligence loss.”
(c) How and when to notify. The notification under subsection (a) must be provided according to the procedures established under subsection (d), no later than 30 days after the date on which the Department of Energy determines that the loss happened.
(d) Procedures. The Secretary of Energy and the Senate and House Armed Services Committees must each establish the procedures needed to protect from unauthorized disclosure classified information, information about intelligence sources and methods, and sensitive law-enforcement information submitted to those committees under this section. They must also establish the procedures otherwise needed to carry out this section.
(e) Statutory construction. (1) Nothing in this section may be interpreted as giving authority to withhold information from the Senate or House Armed Services Committees on the ground that providing the information to those committees would be an “unauthorized disclosure” of classified information, information about intelligence sources and methods, or sensitive law-enforcement information. This section does not define “unauthorized disclosure.” (2) Nothing in this section may be interpreted to change or override any other requirement to report information about intelligence activities to Congress. This includes the requirement in section 501 of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3091) that the President make sure the congressional intelligence committees are kept fully informed about United States intelligence activities, and that those committees promptly notify other congressional committees about any matter concerning intelligence activities that requires the attention of those committees.