22 U.S.C. § 2652c — Assistant Secretary of State for Verification and Compliance

(a) Position. The Secretary of State must designate one authorized Assistant Secretary as Assistant Secretary of State for Verification and Compliance. The Assistant Secretary reports to the Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security.

(b) Directive. Within 30 days after November 29, 1999, the Secretary must issue a directive for the position. It must describe the Assistant Secretary’s duties, relationships with other Department officials, any authority delegated by the Secretary, and other matters the Secretary considers appropriate.

(c) Duties. (1) The Assistant Secretary’s main duty is overall Department supervision, including policy and resources, for verification and compliance with international arms-control, nonproliferation, and disarmament agreements or commitments. (2)(A) Unless subparagraph (B) or (C) applies, the Assistant Secretary or a designee must participate in every executive-branch interagency group or organization that assesses, analyzes, or reviews planned or ongoing United States policies, programs, or actions directly bearing on verification or compliance, including intelligence committees concerned with measurement intelligence, signals intelligence, or other national technical means of verification. (B) This does not apply to a group on which the Secretary or Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security sits, unless that official designates the Assistant Secretary to attend. (C)(i) The President may waive participation when it would not serve United States national-security interests. (ii) For a group or meeting handling exceptionally sensitive compartmented information controlled by the Director of Central Intelligence, Secretary of Defense, or Secretary of Energy, that Director or Secretary may waive participation for the same reason. (iii) A waiver under clause (i) or (ii) must be sent in writing to the appropriate congressional committees. (3) The Assistant Secretary is the main policy-community representative to the intelligence community on verification and compliance. (4) Within the Department, the Assistant Secretary is responsible for all reports required by section 2577; the portions of reports under section 2593a(a)(4)–(6) concerning verification or compliance; the portions of reports under section 8003 concerning those matters; and other Department reports being prepared on November 29, 1999, concerning verification or compliance with arms-control, nonproliferation, or disarmament commitments.