Anna Eshoo says she will offer an amendment to the Intelligence Reauthorization bill. | REUTERS Rep. targets CIA moonlighting

Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) says she will offer an amendment to the Intelligence Reauthorization bill later this week that would put new rules into place on the practice of intelligence officers who take second jobs in the private sector.

POLITICO revealed on Feb. 1 that the CIA has a little-known policy allowing active duty officers to take part-time work at private sector companies so long as they have the approval of their supervisor and satisfy their superiors that there is no conflict of interest with their intelligence jobs.


But Eshoo, who has questioned intelligence officials about the practice, says she’s skeptical that the intelligence community is monitoring the moonlighting. “My sense is that it is a rubber stamp deal,” she said of the approval process. “No one’s really looking at it or keeping a close eye on it.”

Eshoo says she is soliciting Republican support for the measure, but so far has four additional Democrats on the Intelligence Committee as cosponsors: John Tierney (D-Mass.), Dan Boren (D-Okla.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), and Mike Thompson (D-Calif.).

Her amendment, which could come up for a vote before the end of the week, requires the Director of National Intelligence to work with the Office of Government Ethics to issue regulations prohibiting moonlighting if it creates a “conflict of interest or appearance thereof.”

And it would mandate that the Director of National Intelligence – who oversees the entire intelligence community including the CIA – to disclose all moonlighting to congressional intelligence committees each year.

Finally, it would block intelligence operatives from owning “an entity that markets or sells for profit the use of knowledge or skills that such officer or employee acquires or makes use of while carrying out the official duties of such officer or employee.”

Michael Birmingham, a spokesman for the Director of National Intelligence, said Tuesday he couldn’t comment on the Eshoo amendment. “The Intelligence Community will work with Congress as the Intelligence Authorization Act is considered by the House,’ Birmingham said. “We do not comment on specific amendments that are being considered.”

In a statement to POLITICO in early February, a spokesperson for the Director of National Intelligence said that employees are carefully vetted before being allowed to moonlight in the private sector: “Multiple levels of review are in place to determine whether any security or legal issues would arise and whether the employment would create conflicts of interest, counterintelligence issues or related concerns,” the spokesperson said. “The review process is both rigorous and comprehensive.”

Sources familiar with the moonlighting policy – which is similar to policies found throughout the federal government – say the CIA uses it as a retention tool to keep high skilled CIA officers from leaving for high-paying corporate jobs.

But Eshoo said that the CIA has never told the House Intelligence Committee that it’s having trouble retaining officers, and never asked for additional salary increases to keep employees in government jobs.

Eshoo said that she didn’t pursue a blanket ban on outside employment because she didn’t want to block activities she sees as legitimate. “There are federal employees who teach classes, or tutor in foreign languages, or who write fiction, or other activities that are unrelated to their employment,” she said. And there are lower-paid employees who take second jobs to make ends meet – a GS1 only makes $17,000 per year.”

POLITICO’s revelation of the moonlighting policy came in an excerpt of a book by the author, entitled: “Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy: The Secret World of Corporate Espionage.”