II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1290
To expand the functions of the National Institute of Standards and Tech-
nology to include workforce frameworks for critical and emerging tech-
nologies, to require the Director of the National Institute of Standards
and Technology to develop an artificial intelligence workforce framework,
and periodically review and update the NICE Workforce Framework
for Cybersecurity, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
APRIL3, 2025
Mr. P
ETERS(for himself and Mr. SCHMITT) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation
A BILL
To expand the functions of the National Institute of Stand-
ards and Technology to include workforce frameworks
for critical and emerging technologies, to require the
Director of the National Institute of Standards and
Technology to develop an artificial intelligence workforce
framework, and periodically review and update the NICE
Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity, 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
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Artificial Intelligence 2
and Critical Technology Workforce Framework Act of 3
2025’’. 4
SEC. 2. WORKFORCE FRAMEWORKS FOR CRITICAL AND 5
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES. 6
(a) D
EFINITIONS.— 7
(1) I
N GENERAL.—In this section, the terms 8
‘‘competencies’’, ‘‘workforce categories’’, and ‘‘work-9
force framework’’ have the meanings given such 10
terms in subsection (f) of section 2 of the National 11
Institute of Standards and Technology Act (15 12
U.S.C. 272), as added by subsection (b) of this sec-13
tion. 14
(2) A
MENDMENT TO NIST ACT .—Section 2 of 15
such Act (15 U.S.C. 272) is amended by adding at 16
the end the following: 17
‘‘(f) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 18
‘‘(1) C
OMPETENCIES.—The term ‘competencies’ 19
means knowledge and skills. 20
‘‘(2) W
ORKFORCE CATEGORIES .—The term 21
‘workforce categories’ means a high-level grouping of 22
tasks across an organization as defined by work 23
roles within the category. 24
‘‘(3) W
ORKFORCE FRAMEWORK .—The term 25
‘workforce framework’ means a common taxonomy 26
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and lexicon for any given domain that includes the 1
building blocks of tasks, knowledge, or skills that 2
can be structured to form work roles or competency 3
areas.’’. 4
(b) E
XPANSION OFFUNCTIONS OFDIRECTOR OFNA-5
TIONALINSTITUTE OFSTANDARDS ANDTECHNOLOGYTO 6
I
NCLUDEWORKFORCEFRAMEWORKS FOR CRITICAL AND 7
E
MERGINGTECHNOLOGIES.—Section 2(b) of such Act 8
(15 U.S.C. 272(b)) is amended— 9
(1) in paragraph (12), by striking ‘‘; and’’ and 10
inserting a semicolon; 11
(2) in paragraph (13), by striking the period at 12
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 13
(3) by adding at the end the following: 14
‘‘(14)(A) to develop, maintain, and provide in-15
dustry, government, research, nonprofit, labor orga-16
nizations, and educational institutions with work-17
force frameworks for critical and emerging tech-18
nologies and other science, technology, engineering, 19
and mathematics domains for the purpose of bol-20
stering scientific and technical education, training, 21
and workforce development; 22
‘‘(B) at least once every 3 years— 23
‘‘(i) to determine if an update to any work-24
force framework, or its components or associ-25
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ated materials, including work roles or com-1
petency areas, provided pursuant to subpara-2
graph (A) are appropriate; and 3
‘‘(ii) if the Director determines it is appro-4
priate under clause (i), to update such frame-5
works and components; 6
‘‘(C) consider including in all workforce frame-7
works, or associated materials— 8
‘‘(i) relevant professional skills or employ-9
ability skills; 10
‘‘(ii) relevant support or operations work 11
roles and competency areas such as administra-12
tion and finance, law and policy, ethics, privacy, 13
human resources, information technology, oper-14
ational technology, supply chain security, and 15
acquisition and procurement; 16
‘‘(iii) information that promotes the dis-17
covery of careers in critical and emerging tech-18
nologies and the multiple career pathways for 19
learners from a variety of backgrounds, includ-20
ing individuals with nontechnical or other non-21
traditional backgrounds and education; and 22
‘‘(iv) information for how individuals can 23
acquire relevant credentials (e.g., academic de-24
grees, certificates, certifications, etc.) that qual-25
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ify individuals for employment and career ad-1
vancement; 2
‘‘(D) consult, as the Director considers appro-3
priate, with Federal agencies, industry, State, local, 4
Tribal, and territorial government, nonprofit, labor 5
organizations, research, and academic institutions in 6
the development of workforce frameworks, or associ-7
ated materials; 8
‘‘(E) to produce resources in multiple languages 9
to support global adoption of the frameworks pro-10
vided pursuant to subparagraph (A); and 11
‘‘(F) after each determination under subpara-12
graph (B), to submit to Congress a report on such 13
determination and any plans to review and update 14
any workforce frameworks under this paragraph.’’. 15
(c) NICE W
ORKFORCEFRAMEWORK FOR CYBERSE-16
CURITYUPDATE.— 17
(1) R
EPORT ON UPDATES.— 18
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 19
days after the date of the enactment of this 20
Act, and subsequently pursuant to paragraph 21
(14)(F) of section (2)(b) of the National Insti-22
tute of Standards and Technology Act (15 23
U.S.C. 272(b)), as added by subsection (b) of 24
this section, the Director of the National Insti-25
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tute of Standards and Technology shall submit 1
to Congress a report that describes the process 2
for ongoing review and updates to the National 3
Initiative for Cybersecurity Education Work-4
force Framework for Cybersecurity (NIST Spe-5
cial Publication 800–181), or a successor 6
framework. 7
(B) R
EQUIREMENTS.—Each report sub-8
mitted pursuant to subparagraph (A) shall— 9
(i) summarize proposed changes to 10
the framework; 11
(ii) identify, with regard to the work 12
roles, tasks, knowledge, and skills included 13
in the framework, how industry, academia, 14
labor organizations, and relevant govern-15
ment agencies are consulted in the update; 16
and 17
(iii) describe— 18
(I) the ongoing process and 19
timeline for updating the framework; 20
and 21
(II) the incorporation of any ad-22
ditional work roles or competency 23
areas in domains such as administra-24
tion and finance, law and policy, eth-25
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ics, privacy, human resources, infor-1
mation technology, operational tech-2
nology, supply chain security, and ac-3
quisition and procurement. 4
(2) R
EPORT ON APPLICATION AND USE OF NICE 5
FRAMEWORK.—Not later than 3 years after the date 6
of the enactment of this Act and not less frequently 7
than once every 3 years thereafter for 9 years, the 8
Director shall, in consultation with industry, govern-9
ment, nonprofit, labor organizations, research, and 10
academic institutions, submit to Congress a report 11
that identifies— 12
(A) applications and uses of the framework 13
described in paragraph (1)(A) in practice; 14
(B) any guidance that the program office 15
of the National Initiative for Cybersecurity 16
Education provides to increase adoption by em-17
ployers and education and training providers of 18
the work roles and competency areas for indi-19
viduals who perform cybersecurity work at all 20
proficiency levels; 21
(C) available information regarding em-22
ployer and education and training provider use 23
of the framework; 24
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(D) an assessment of the use and effective-1
ness of the framework by and for individuals 2
with nontraditional backgrounds or education, 3
especially individuals making a career change or 4
not pursuing a bachelor’s degree or higher; and 5
(E) any additional actions taken by the Di-6
rector to increase the use of the framework. 7
(3) C
YBERSECURITY CAREER EXPLORATION RE -8
SOURCES.—The Director, acting through the Na-9
tional Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, shall 10
disseminate cybersecurity career resources for all 11
age groups, including kindergarten through sec-12
ondary and postsecondary education and adult work-13
ers. 14
(d) A
DDITIONALWORKFORCEFRAMEWORKS.— 15
(1) F
RAMEWORK ASSESSMENT .—Not later than 16
180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, 17
the Director shall assess the need for additional 18
workforce frameworks for critical and emerging 19
technologies, such as quantum information science. 20
(2) D
EVELOPMENT OF ADDITIONAL FRAME -21
WORKS.— 22
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Director shall de-23
velop and publish a workforce framework for 24
each additional workforce framework that the 25
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Director determines is needed pursuant to an 1
assessment carried out pursuant to paragraph 2
(1). 3
(B) R
EQUIRED AI FRAMEWORK .—Notwith-4
standing paragraph (1) and subparagraph (A) 5
of this paragraph, not less than 540 days after 6
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Di-7
rector shall develop and publish a workforce 8
framework, workforce categories, work roles, 9
and competency areas for artificial intelligence. 10
(3) M
ODEL.—In developing a workforce frame-11
work under paragraph (2), the Director may use the 12
Playbook for Workforce Frameworks developed by 13
the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education 14
that is modeled after the National Initiative for Cy-15
bersecurity Education Workforce Framework for Cy-16
bersecurity (NIST Special Publication 800–181), or 17
a successor framework. 18
(4) F
RAMEWORK COMPONENTS .—Each frame-19
work developed pursuant to paragraph (2) shall in-20
clude relevant support or operations work roles and 21
competency areas such as administration and fi-22
nance, law and policy, ethics, privacy, human re-23
sources, information technology, operational tech-24
nology, supply chain security, and acquisition and 25
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procurement, as the Director considers appropriate, 1
in alignment with paragraph (14)(C) of section 2(b) 2
of the National Institute of Standards and Tech-3
nology Act (15 U.S.C. 272(b)), as added by sub-4
section (b). 5
(5) P
ROFESSIONAL SKILLS REQUIRED .—Each 6
framework developed pursuant to paragraph (2) 7
shall include professional skills or employability 8
skills, as the Director considers appropriate, in 9
alignment with paragraph (14)(C) of section 2(b) of 10
the National Institute of Standards and Technology 11
Act (15 U.S.C. 272(b)), as added by subsection (b). 12
(6) N
ONTRADITIONAL BACKGROUNDS .—Each 13
framework developed under paragraph (2), or mate-14
rials associated with each framework, shall include 15
information for how individuals with nontechnical or 16
other nontraditional backgrounds and education may 17
utilize their skills for such frameworks’ roles and 18
tasks, in alignment with paragraph (14)(D) of sec-19
tion 2(b) of the such Act (15 U.S.C. 20
272(b)(14)(D)), as so added. 21
(7) U
PDATES.—The Director shall update each 22
framework developed under paragraph (2) in accord-23
ance with subparagraph (B) of paragraph (14) of 24
section 2(b) of the National Institute of Standards 25
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and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 272(b)), as added by 1
subsection (b) of this section, and submit to Con-2
gress reports in accordance with subparagraph (F) 3
of such paragraph. 4
Æ
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