Generally speaking, whistleblowers are those who expose misconduct (e.g., fraud, abuse, or illegal activity) within an organization. In the context of the Intelligence Community (IC), whistleblowers are generally employees or contractors of federal intelligence agencies who bring to light information on agency wrongdoings. Whistleblowers disclose this information through government channels (e.g., the congressional intelligence committees or agency inspectors general) or to the media. Such disclosures can aid oversight of, and thereby curb misconduct within, intelligence agencies. When an IC whistleblower discloses information on alleged agency wrongdoing, he could face retaliation from his employer by, for example, being fired, demoted, or having his security clearance revoked. The threat of retaliation may deter potential whistleblowers from disclosing information on agency wrongdoing. There is seemingly tension between the desire to eliminate this deterrence, and thus encourage whistleblowers to bring agency misconduct to light, and the need to protect government secrets which, if disclosed publicly, could be harmful to the country's national security interests. Apparently seeking to strike balance within this tension, Congress and President Obama have taken action to limit retaliation against IC whistleblowers for certain types of protected disclosures, which do not include disclosures to media sources. That is, IC whistleblowers who disclose information to media sources generally are unprotected against potential retaliation or criminal sanction. There are three sources of protections against retaliation for IC whistleblowers: the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act of 1998 (ICWPA), Presidential Policy Directive 19 (PPD-19), and Title VI of the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 (Title VI). Before passing the ICWPA, which is the oldest of the three protections, Congress observed that intelligence whistleblowers apparently lacked protection against retaliation stemming from their disclosures of agency wrongdoings. Whistleblower protections for federal employees are largely governed by the Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA), which Congress initially passed in 1989, and its amendments. The WPA expressly excluded intelligence agency employees from its applicability, and thus initially left intelligence whistleblowers unprotected against retaliation. The ICWPA seemingly represented Congress's attempt at filling this gap by extending protections to intelligence whistleblowers. Though the ICWPA extended some protections to intelligence whistleblowers, it afforded such whistleblowers less protection than the WPA affords non-intelligence whistleblowers. However, protections for intelligence whistleblowers have strengthened over time. PPD-19, which President Obama issued in 2012, expanded upon the ICWPA's protections for some IC whistleblowers, and Title VI generally codified, and in some instances built upon, the protections of PPD-19. This report describes these three sources of IC whistleblower protection. The ICWPA is the oldest of the three intelligence whistleblower protections. In passing the ICWPA, Congress observed that the threat of adverse personnel action to IC employees deterred them from whistleblowing. This deterrence from whistleblowing, Congress found, may have been constricting the flow of information to congressional intelligence committees that the committees needed to properly perform their oversight responsibilities. The ICWPA therefore permits IC employees and contractors to bring a complaint or disclose specified information to Congress, and outlines the procedures for doing so. However, the ICWPA does not expressly prohibit retaliation against IC whistleblowers for permissibly bringing a complaint or information to Congress and contains no explicit mechanism for obtaining a remedy for this retaliation. Rather, the ICWPA merely allows an IC whistleblower who has faced such retaliation to then use the act's disclosure procedures to inform the intelligence committees that the retaliation has occurred. The ICWPA applies to employees of the Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Imagery and Mapping Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, National Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and any other agency that the President determines has the principal function of conducting foreign intelligence or counterintelligence activities. The ICWPA also applies to the employees of a contractor of any of the aforementioned agencies. An employee seeking to bring a complaint or disclose information to Congress under the ICWPA is subject to two limitations: (1) the complaint or information must be related to an "urgent concern" as defined in the act; and (2) the employee must first bring the complaint or disclose the information to the agency head through the proper agency channels. Under the ICWPA, IC employees and contractors can disclose to Congress only complaints and information that are "with respect to an urgent concern." Under the act, an "urgent concern" can be one of three things. First, it can be a "serious or flagrant" abuse, problem, violation of executive order or law, or deficiency in funding, agency administration, or agency operations involving classified information. Second, an urgent concern can be a false statement to, or willful withholding from, Congress on an issue of material fact relating to intelligence activity funding, administration, or operation. Third, an urgent concern can include adverse personnel action stemming from disclosure under the ICWPA. A complaint or information that is not regarding one of these three "urgent concerns" is not covered by the ICWPA. IC employees and contractors must first bring complaints or information regarding "urgent concerns" to the agency head through proper agency channels, as described in the ICWPA, before bringing them to Congress. This generally requires first bringing a complaint or information to the agency's Inspector General or the Inspector General of the IC (IGIC), who then has 14 calendar days to evaluate the credibility of the complaint or information. Upon finding the complaint or information credible, the Inspector General must send notice of its finding, along with the complaint or information, to the agency head within the 14-calendar-day period for evaluation. The agency head then has 7 calendar days from receipt of the Inspector General's notice to forward the notice, along with any of the agency head's comments, to the congressional intelligence committees. The ICWPA allows employees to contact intelligence committees directly if the Inspector General either does not find the complaint or information credible, or sends the agency head an inaccurate complaint or inaccurate information. However, this ability to contact the intelligence committees directly is subject to two limitations. First, before making such contact, an employee or contractor must give the agency head a statement of the complaint or information through the Inspector General, along with notice of intent to contact the intelligence committees directly. Second, the employee or contractor must follow the agency head's direction, given through the Inspector General, on compliance with appropriate security practices when contacting the intelligence committees. The ICWPA seemingly represents an attempt by Congress to fill a gap in federal whistleblower protections by extending such protections to IC whistleblowers where they were expressly excluded from the WPA and its amendments, which generally provide whistleblower protections to federal employees. However, the ICWPA appears to afford IC whistleblowers fewer protections than the WPA affords non-intelligence whistleblowers. The WPA provides an employee with an individual right of action for prohibited retaliation, through which he can bring a claim against this agency in the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). The MSPB can then provide several remedies, including, but not limited to, returning the individual to the position he would have been in if retaliation had not occurred, awarding back pay, and awarding any reasonable and foreseeable consequential damages. If an employee's claim is unsuccessful before the MSPB, the employee can appeal the MSPB's decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Conversely, the ICWPA provides no explicit mechanism for remedying for retaliation stemming from disclosure of an urgent concern to Congress; it merely prescribes the process through which such disclosures can be made and allows employees and contractors to then use those disclosure procedures to inform Congress of any resulting improper retaliation. Further, the ICWPA expressly states that Inspector General and agency head action taken pursuant to the ICWPA is not subject to judicial review, unlike retaliation claims under the WPA. In comparing the ICWPA's protections against the WPA's, some commentators have questioned the ICWPA's effectiveness at protecting intelligence whistleblowers from improper retaliation. President Obama issued PPD-19 on October 10, 2012, to ensure that IC employees can effectively report instances of waste, fraud, and abuse. PPD-19 protects employees who engage in "protected disclosures" from certain types of adverse action by their employers. Thus, unlike the ICWPA, PPD-19's protections do not appear to extend to IC contractors. Under PPD-19, five types of disclosures fall under the umbrella of "protected disclosures." First, protected disclosures include employee disclosures to the agency Inspector General, Director of National Intelligence, IGIC, or supervisors within the employee's direct chain-of-command. The employee must reasonably believe that disclosures to such persons evidence (1) a perceived violation of law, rule, or regulation; (2) gross mismanagement; (3) gross waste of funds; (4) abuse of authority; or (5) a specific and substantial threat to public health or safety. Second, PPD-19 protects disclosures to congressional committees made pursuant to the ICWPA, discussed above. Third, "protected disclosures" comprise any disclosure of a violation of PPD-19. Fourth, protected disclosures include those made pursuant to an investigation or proceeding involving a violation of PPD-19. Finally, the definition of "protected disclosures" generally includes disclosures to Inspectors General. Under PPD-19, intelligence agency employees who make protected disclosures cannot consequently be subject to adverse personnel actions or have their access to classified information negatively affected by an officer or employee of the agency. PPD-19 required intelligence agencies to certify, within 270 days of its issuance, that they had internal procedures for reviewing allegations of wrongful personnel actions or impacts on access to classified information. These procedures must provide for the protection of classified information and intelligence sources and methods.