Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SB318 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	II
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION S. 318
5	5	To require a plan to improve the cybersecurity and telecommunications of
6	6	the U.S. Academic Research Fleet, and for other purposes.
7	7	IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
8	8	JANUARY29, 2025
9	9	Mr. P
10	10	ADILLA(for himself and Mr. SULLIVAN) introduced the following bill;
11	11	which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce,
12	12	Science, and Transportation
13	13	A BILL
14	14	To require a plan to improve the cybersecurity and tele-
15	15	communications of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet,
16	16	and for other purposes.
17	17	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
18	18	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
19	19	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
20	20	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Accelerating Net-4
21	21	working, Cyberinfrastructure, and Hardware for Oceanic 5
22	22	Research Act’’ or the ‘‘ANCHOR Act’’. 6
23	23	SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 7
24	24	In this Act: 8
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27	27	•S 318 IS
28	28	(1) U.S. ACADEMIC RESEARCH FLEET .—The 1
29	29	term ‘‘U.S. Academic Research Fleet’’ means the 2
30	30	United States-flagged vessels that— 3
31	31	(A) have been accepted into, and are active 4
32	32	participants administered within, the Univer-5
33	33	sity-National Oceanographic Laboratory Sys-6
34	34	tem; 7
35	35	(B) are operated as oceanographic research 8
36	36	vessels by research universities and laboratories; 9
37	37	(C) receive funding from the National 10
38	38	Science Foundation; and 11
39	39	(D) have achieved designation as a mem-12
40	40	ber vessel through a standard evaluation proc-13
41	41	ess. 14
42	42	(2) D
43	43	IRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 15
44	44	the Director of the National Science Foundation. 16
45	45	(3) O
46	46	CEANOGRAPHIC RESEARCH VESSEL .—The 17
47	47	term ‘‘oceanographic research vessel’’ has the mean-18
48	48	ing given the term in section 2101 of title 46, 19
49	49	United States Code. 20
50	50	SEC. 3. PLAN TO IMPROVE CYBERSECURITY AND TELE-21
51	51	COMMUNICATIONS OF U.S. ACADEMIC RE-22
52	52	SEARCH FLEET. 23
53	53	(a) I
54	54	NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 24
55	55	date of enactment of this Act, the Director shall, in con-25
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58	58	•S 318 IS
59	59	sultation with the head of any Federal agency, university, 1
60	60	or laboratory that owns or operates a vessel of the U.S. 2
61	61	Academic Research Fleet, submit to the Committee on 3
62	62	Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and 4
63	63	the Committee on Space, Science, and Technology of the 5
64	64	House of Representatives a plan to improve the cybersecu-6
65	65	rity and telecommunications of the U.S. Academic Re-7
66	66	search Fleet. 8
67	67	(b) E
68	68	LEMENTS.—The plan required by subsection (a) 9
69	69	shall include— 10
70	70	(1) an assessment of the telecommunications 11
71	71	and networking needs of the U.S. Academic Re-12
72	72	search Fleet, consistent with the typical scientific 13
73	73	mission of that vessel; 14
74	74	(2) in accordance with guidance issued by the 15
75	75	Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency 16
76	76	and the National Institute for Standards and Tech-17
77	77	nology, an assessment of cybersecurity needs appro-18
78	78	priate for— 19
79	79	(A) the ownership of vessels within the 20
80	80	U.S. Academic Research Fleet; and 21
81	81	(B) the typical research functions and top-22
82	82	ics of such vessels; 23
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85	85	•S 318 IS
86	86	(3) an assessment of the costs necessary to 1
87	87	meet the needs described in paragraphs (1) and (2), 2
88	88	including— 3
89	89	(A) any necessary equipment, such as sat-4
90	90	ellite communications equipment, software, 5
91	91	high-performance computing clusters shipboard 6
92	92	and shoreside, or enterprise hardware; and 7
93	93	(B) estimated personnel costs in excess of 8
94	94	current expenditures, including any necessary 9
95	95	training, support, or logistics; 10
96	96	(4) an assessment of the time required to im-11
97	97	plement any upgrades required to meet the needs 12
98	98	described in paragraphs (1) and (2) under varying 13
99	99	budgets and funding scenarios; 14
100	100	(5) the adoption of common solutions or 15
101	101	consortial licensing agreements, or by centralizing 16
102	102	elements of fleet cybersecurity, telecommunications 17
103	103	or data management at a single facility; and 18
104	104	(6) in consultation with any non-Federal owners 19
105	105	of a vessel of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet, a 20
106	106	spending plan for the National Science Foundation, 21
107	107	the Office of Naval Research, non-Federal owners of 22
108	108	vessels of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet, users 23
109	109	of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet, or any com-24
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112	112	•S 318 IS
113	113	bination thereof, to provide funding to cover the 1
114	114	costs described in paragraph (3). 2
115	115	(c) C
116	116	ONSIDERATIONS.—The Director shall, in pre-3
117	117	paring the plan required by subsection (a), consider— 4
118	118	(1) the network capabilities, including speed 5
119	119	and bandwidth targets, necessary to meet the sci-6
120	120	entific mission needs of each class of vessel within 7
121	121	the U.S. Academic Research Fleet for such purposes 8
122	122	as— 9
123	123	(A) executing the critical functions and 10
124	124	communications of the vessel; 11
125	125	(B) providing network access for the 12
126	126	health and well-being of deployed personnel, in-13
127	127	cluding communications to conduct telemedicine 14
128	128	(including mental health care), counseling, 15
129	129	interviews with crisis response providers, and 16
130	130	other remote individual care and services; 17
131	131	(C) as necessary to meet operations, 18
132	132	uploading any scientific data to a shoreside 19
133	133	server, including the copying of data off ship 20
134	134	for disaster recovery or risk mitigation pur-21
135	135	poses; 22
136	136	(D) as appropriate, conducting real-time 23
137	137	streaming to enable shore-based observers to 24
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140	140	•S 318 IS
141	141	participate in ship-based maintenance or re-1
142	142	search activities; 2
143	143	(E) real-time coordinated viewing of— 3
144	144	(i) scientific instrumentation so that it 4
145	145	is possible to conduct scientific surveys and 5
146	146	seafloor mapping with fully remote subject- 6
147	147	matter experts; and 7
148	148	(ii) critical operational technology by 8
149	149	manufacturers and vendors so that it is 9
150	150	possible to carry out maintenance and re-10
151	151	pairs to systems with limited expertise on 11
152	152	the vessel, with fully remote subject-matter 12
153	153	experts advising; and 13
154	154	(F) as appropriate, enabling video commu-14
155	155	nications to allow improved outreach to, and 15
156	156	other educational services for, K–12 students, 16
157	157	including occasional remote classroom teaching 17
158	158	for instructors at sea to improve oceanographic 18
159	159	access for students; and 19
160	160	(2) in consultation with the Director of the Cy-20
161	161	bersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the 21
162	162	Director of the National Institute for Standards and 22
163	163	Technology, and the heads of other Federal agen-23
164	164	cies, as appropriate— 24
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168	168	(A) the cybersecurity recommendations in 1
169	169	the report of the private scientific advisory 2
170	170	group known as JASON entitled ‘‘Cybersecurity 3
171	171	at NSF Major Facilities’’ (JSR–21–10E) and 4
172	172	dated October 2021 as applied to the U.S. Aca-5
173	173	demic Research Fleet; 6
174	174	(B) aligning with international standards 7
175	175	and guidance for information security, including 8
176	176	the use of encryption for sensitive information, 9
177	177	the detection and handling of security incidents, 10
178	178	and other areas determined relevant by the Di-11
179	179	rector; 12
180	180	(C) facilitating access to cybersecurity per-13
181	181	sonnel and training of research and support 14
182	182	personnel; and 15
183	183	(D) the requirements for controlled unclas-16
184	184	sified or classified information. 17
185	185	Æ
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