I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1223
To require a plan to improve the cybersecurity and telecommunications of
the U.S. Academic Research Fleet, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY12, 2025
Mr. F
ONG(for himself and Ms. STEVENS) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
A BILL
To require a plan to improve the cybersecurity and tele-
communications of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Accelerating Net-4
working, Cyberinfrastructure, and Hardware for Oceanic 5
Research Act’’ or the ‘‘ANCHOR Act’’. 6
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SEC. 2. PLAN TO IMPROVE CYBERSECURITY AND TELE-1
COMMUNICATIONS OF U.S. ACADEMIC RE-2
SEARCH FLEET. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 18 months after 4
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director, in con-5
sultation with other Federal agency owners and the head 6
of any university or laboratory that owns or operates a 7
vessel of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet, shall submit 8
to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transpor-9
tation of the Senate and the Committee on Science, Space, 10
and Technology of the House of Representatives a plan 11
to improve the cybersecurity and telecommunications of 12
the U.S. Academic Research Fleet. 13
(b) E
LEMENTS.—The plan required by subsection (a) 14
shall include— 15
(1) an assessment of the telecommunications 16
and networking needs of the U.S. Academic Re-17
search Fleet, consistent with the typical scientific 18
mission of each vessel; 19
(2) in accordance with guidance issued by the 20
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency 21
and the National Institute for Standards and Tech-22
nology, an assessment of cybersecurity needs appro-23
priate for— 24
(A) the operation of vessels within the U.S. 25
Academic Research Fleet; and 26
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(B) the specific research functions and ac-1
tivities of such vessels; 2
(3) an assessment of the costs necessary to 3
meet the needs described in paragraphs (1) and (2), 4
including— 5
(A) any necessary equipment costs in ex-6
cess of current expenditures, such as satellite 7
communications equipment, software, high-per-8
formance computing infrastructure shipboard 9
and shoreside, or enterprise hardware; 10
(B) estimated personnel costs in excess of 11
current expenditures, including any necessary 12
training, support, or logistics; and 13
(C) the estimated impact on daily charter 14
rates associated with the costs described in sub-15
paragraphs (A) and (B); 16
(4) an assessment of the time required to im-17
plement any upgrades required to meet the needs 18
described in paragraphs (1) and (2) under varying 19
budgets and funding scenarios; 20
(5) an assessment of opportunities for the adop-21
tion of common solutions or consortial licensing 22
agreements, or for the centralization of elements of 23
fleet cybersecurity, telecommunications, or data 24
management at a single facility; and 25
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(6) in consultation with any non-Federal owners 1
of a vessel of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet, a 2
spending plan for the National Science Foundation, 3
the Office of Naval Research, non-Federal owners of 4
vessels of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet, users 5
of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet, or any com-6
bination thereof, to provide funding to cover the 7
costs described in paragraph (3). 8
(c) C
ONSIDERATIONS.—The Director in preparing 9
the plan required by subsection (a), shall, as appropriate, 10
consider the following: 11
(1) The network capabilities, including speed 12
and bandwidth targets, necessary to meet the sci-13
entific mission needs of each class of vessel within 14
the U.S. Academic Research Fleet for such purposes 15
as— 16
(A) executing the critical functions and 17
communications of each vessel; 18
(B) providing network access for the 19
health and well-being of deployed personnel, in-20
cluding communications to conduct telemedicine 21
(including mental health care), counseling, 22
interviews with crisis response providers, and 23
other remote individual care and services; 24
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(C) as necessary to meet operations, 1
uploading any scientific data to a cloud-based 2
server or shoreside server, including the copying 3
of data off ship for disaster recovery or risk 4
mitigation purposes; 5
(D) conducting real-time streaming to en-6
able shore-based observers to participate in 7
ship-based maintenance or research activities; 8
(E) scientific instrumentation so that it is 9
possible to conduct scientific surveys and 10
seafloor mapping with fully remote subject mat-11
ter experts; 12
(F) critical operational technology by man-13
ufacturers and vendors so that it is possible to 14
carry out maintenance and repairs to systems 15
with limited expertise on each vessel, with fully 16
remote subject matter experts advising; and 17
(G) enabling video communications to 18
allow improved outreach to, and other edu-19
cational services for, K–12 students, including 20
occasional remote classroom teaching for in-21
structors at sea to improve oceanographic ac-22
cess for students. 23
(2) In consultation with the Director of the Cy-24
bersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the 25
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Director of the National Institute for Standards and 1
Technology, and the heads of other Federal agen-2
cies, as appropriate— 3
(A) the cybersecurity recommendations in 4
the report of the private scientific advisory 5
group known as JASON entitled ‘‘Cybersecurity 6
at NSF Major Facilities’’ (JSR–21–10E) and 7
dated October 2021 as applied to the U.S. Aca-8
demic Research Fleet; 9
(B) aligning with international standards 10
and guidance for information security, including 11
the use of encryption for sensitive information, 12
the detection and handling of security incidents, 13
and other areas determined relevant by the Di-14
rector; 15
(C) facilitating access to cybersecurity per-16
sonnel and training of research and support 17
personnel; and 18
(D) the requirements for controlled unclas-19
sified or classified information. 20
(d) I
MPLEMENTATION OF AND REPORT ONPLAN.— 21
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Director, in coordina-22
tion with the Office of Naval Research, non-Federal 23
owners of vessels of the Academic Research Fleet, 24
users of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet, or any 25
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combination thereof, may support upgrades to the 1
cyberinfrastructure and cybersecurity of the U.S. 2
Academic Research Fleet consistent with the plan 3
required by subsection (a). 4
(2) R
EPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than two 5
years after the submission of the plan required by 6
subsection (a), the Director shall submit to the Com-7
mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of 8
the Senate and the Committee on Science, Space, 9
and Technology of the House of Representatives a 10
report describing the progress made in implementing 11
the plan. 12
(e) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 13
(1) D
IRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 14
the Director of the National Science Foundation. 15
(2) O
CEANOGRAPHIC RESEARCH VESSEL .—The 16
term ‘‘oceanographic research vessel’’ has the mean-17
ing given the term in section 2101 of title 46, 18
United States Code. 19
(3) U.S.
ACADEMIC RESEARCH FLEET .—The 20
term ‘‘U.S Academic Research Fleet’’ means the 21
United States-flagged vessels that— 22
(A) are operated as oceanographic research 23
vessels by research universities and laboratories; 24
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(B) have achieved designation as a member 1
vessel of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet 2
through the standard U.S. Academic Research 3
Fleet evaluation process; and 4
(C) have been accepted into, and are active 5
participants within, the University-National 6
Oceanographic Laboratory System. 7
Æ
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