6 U.S.C. § 122 — Access to information

This section gives the Secretary of Homeland Security broad access to terrorism-related government information. (a) In general. Paragraph (1) says that, unless the President directs otherwise, the Secretary has whatever access is needed to all information — including reports, assessments, analyses, and unevaluated intelligence — about threats of terrorism against the United States and about the country's infrastructure or other vulnerabilities to terrorism, whether or not that information has already been analyzed, that any federal agency has collected, has, or has prepared. Paragraph (2) gives the Secretary access to other information related to the Secretary's responsibilities, as the President may further direct. (b) Manner of access. Unless the President directs otherwise, paragraph (1) lets the Secretary request this material directly, or set up cooperative arrangements with other agencies — including broad categories of material or ongoing access to electronic databases. Paragraph (2) says that regardless of any such request or arrangement, every federal agency must promptly give the Secretary: (A) all reports, including unevaluated intelligence reports, assessments, and analysis about terrorism threats and the Secretary's other assigned responsibilities; (B) all information about vulnerabilities of U.S. infrastructure or other vulnerabilities to terrorism, analyzed or not; (C) all other information about significant, credible terrorism threats, analyzed or not; and (D) any other information the President directs. (c) Treatment under certain laws. The Secretary is treated as a federal law enforcement, intelligence, protective, national defense, immigration, or national security official, entitled to receive any information from law enforcement agencies that must be given to the Director of National Intelligence under: (1) the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001; (2) section 2517(6) of title 18; and (3) Rule 6(e)(3)(C) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. (d) Access to intelligence and other information. Paragraph (1) says nothing in this subchapter stops any part of the intelligence community, or any other federal element responsible for analyzing terrorist threat information, from receiving terrorism-related intelligence or information. Paragraph (2) requires the Secretary, working with the Director of National Intelligence, to make sure that terrorism-related information the Department has access to is properly shared with those federal elements, as well as with state and local governments as appropriate.