By Christopher Bing

(Reuters) – The U.S. intelligence community’s budget bill could place new controls and reporting requirements on former U.S. spies, according to the author of the legislation, making it harder for them to work as contractors for foreign governments following a 2019 Reuters investigation into American mercenary hackers.

“People in the intelligence community develop skills necessary to protect our country against foreign bad actors, and that intellectual property really belongs to the United States,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday.

He stated that it was not intended to be misused by foreign governments for spying on Americans and to infringe upon the human rights to dissidents. We will make sure this doesn’t happen again.

On Thursday, the House Intelligence Committee passed the bill with bipartisan support. The bill now moves to the full chamber, where it will be considered before being sent on to the Senate and possibly the President’s desk for signing.

Although it may not be yet law, experts claim that the amendment is significant because it is the first.

Stewart Baker, former U.S. National Security Agency General Counsel said that this bill “singles out intelligence agencies for some the most severe and punitive after-employment restrictions Congress have ever adopted.”

Staffers familiar with this bill said that the provision was intended to dissuade former spy from offering intelligence-focused services to nations with low human rights records.

The bill requires that former officials who held sensitive posts report to the U.S. government any employment they have for foreign governments in “national security intelligence or internal security” service provision. The law also prohibits such employment within 30 months of leaving the U.S. intelligence agency. Working for an overseas government via a private corporation is also prohibited.

‘TIME WE ACTED’

Reuters reporting previously revealed the existence of a secret, American-staffed, mercenary hacking unit in the United Arab Emirates known as Project Raven (NASDAQ:).

These revelations led the U.S. to make a number of policy shifts over the past two years. For example, Congress required that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence submit a report on the matter of mercenary spy spies to Congress.

“I have to think the case you (Reuters) uncovered is not an isolated case,” said Schiff, who added that they have been seeking this information from the intelligence community for some time and don’t have good visibility on it. “I think it is time we acted.”

The Reuters reports showed how Project Raven spied on a wide range of targets, from American journalists to Middle Eastern human rights activists and regional political rivals of the UAE.

The amendment’s introduction follows just two weeks after three Project Raven operatives were charged by the U.S. Justice Department for violating U.S. export control and hacking laws. Former U.S. intelligence agents, the defendants admitted that they had hacked into American computer networks using Abu Dhabi as a service for Emirati intelligence agencies.