Efforts by U.S. intelligence agencies to prevent China and other adversaries from stealing secrets are hampered by miscommunication, lack of money and staff in the office dedicated to coordinating those efforts, a new report from the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee writes, the AP reports.

The National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC), which is supposed to coordinate U.S. government efforts, lacks a clear mission and is limited in its authority, it said.

The report says there is also disagreement among intelligence officials over who should lead the response to cyberattacks and campaigns trying to influence Americans, and whether those efforts should qualify as counterintelligence efforts.

Washington has long accused Beijing, among other things, of authorizing large-scale campaigns to steal secrets through espionage, cyberattacks and corporate espionage, as well as spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic and trying to influence American democracy. The FBI has stated that it starts a new investigation involving China every 10 hours on average.

The counterintelligence center itself suffers from bureaucracy, the report claims. Obstacles include an inability to hire new staff quickly; a lack of authority to implement national strategies; and an inability to fund counterintelligence programs outside the spy agencies.

President Joe Biden also has yet to appoint a director of the NCSC, which is currently led by acting director Michael Orlando. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the lack of a nominee.

"The United States faces a dramatically different threat landscape today than it did just a couple of decades ago,” said Sen. Mark Warner, the Virginia Democrat who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, in a statement. “New threats and new technology mean that we have to make substantial adjustments to our counterintelligence posture if we are going to protect our country’s national and economic security."

Senator Marco Rubio, who is vice chairman of the committee, said China and other adversaries are "targeting all sectors of society." The committee wants to make sure that intelligence agencies have "the authorities and resources necessary to effectively confront these new counterintelligence threats," he said.