II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 318
To require a plan to improve the cybersecurity and telecommunications of
the U.S. Academic Research Fleet, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY29, 2025
Mr. P
ADILLA(for himself and Mr. SULLIVAN) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation
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
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 7
In this Act: 8
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(1) U.S. ACADEMIC RESEARCH FLEET .—The 1
term ‘‘U.S. Academic Research Fleet’’ means the 2
United States-flagged vessels that— 3
(A) have been accepted into, and are active 4
participants administered within, the Univer-5
sity-National Oceanographic Laboratory Sys-6
tem; 7
(B) are operated as oceanographic research 8
vessels by research universities and laboratories; 9
(C) receive funding from the National 10
Science Foundation; and 11
(D) have achieved designation as a mem-12
ber vessel through a standard evaluation proc-13
ess. 14
(2) D
IRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 15
the Director of the National Science Foundation. 16
(3) O
CEANOGRAPHIC RESEARCH VESSEL .—The 17
term ‘‘oceanographic research vessel’’ has the mean-18
ing given the term in section 2101 of title 46, 19
United States Code. 20
SEC. 3. PLAN TO IMPROVE CYBERSECURITY AND TELE-21
COMMUNICATIONS OF U.S. ACADEMIC RE-22
SEARCH FLEET. 23
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 24
date of enactment of this Act, the Director shall, in con-25
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sultation with the head of any Federal agency, university, 1
or laboratory that owns or operates a vessel of the U.S. 2
Academic Research Fleet, submit to the Committee on 3
Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and 4
the Committee on Space, Science, and Technology of the 5
House of Representatives a plan to improve the cybersecu-6
rity and telecommunications of the U.S. Academic Re-7
search Fleet. 8
(b) E
LEMENTS.—The plan required by subsection (a) 9
shall include— 10
(1) an assessment of the telecommunications 11
and networking needs of the U.S. Academic Re-12
search Fleet, consistent with the typical scientific 13
mission of that vessel; 14
(2) in accordance with guidance issued by the 15
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency 16
and the National Institute for Standards and Tech-17
nology, an assessment of cybersecurity needs appro-18
priate for— 19
(A) the ownership of vessels within the 20
U.S. Academic Research Fleet; and 21
(B) the typical research functions and top-22
ics of such vessels; 23
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(3) an assessment of the costs necessary to 1
meet the needs described in paragraphs (1) and (2), 2
including— 3
(A) any necessary equipment, such as sat-4
ellite communications equipment, software, 5
high-performance computing clusters shipboard 6
and shoreside, or enterprise hardware; and 7
(B) estimated personnel costs in excess of 8
current expenditures, including any necessary 9
training, support, or logistics; 10
(4) an assessment of the time required to im-11
plement any upgrades required to meet the needs 12
described in paragraphs (1) and (2) under varying 13
budgets and funding scenarios; 14
(5) the adoption of common solutions or 15
consortial licensing agreements, or by centralizing 16
elements of fleet cybersecurity, telecommunications 17
or data management at a single facility; and 18
(6) in consultation with any non-Federal owners 19
of a vessel of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet, a 20
spending plan for the National Science Foundation, 21
the Office of Naval Research, non-Federal owners of 22
vessels of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet, users 23
of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet, or any com-24
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bination thereof, to provide funding to cover the 1
costs described in paragraph (3). 2
(c) C
ONSIDERATIONS.—The Director shall, in pre-3
paring the plan required by subsection (a), consider— 4
(1) the network capabilities, including speed 5
and bandwidth targets, necessary to meet the sci-6
entific mission needs of each class of vessel within 7
the U.S. Academic Research Fleet for such purposes 8
as— 9
(A) executing the critical functions and 10
communications of the vessel; 11
(B) providing network access for the 12
health and well-being of deployed personnel, in-13
cluding communications to conduct telemedicine 14
(including mental health care), counseling, 15
interviews with crisis response providers, and 16
other remote individual care and services; 17
(C) as necessary to meet operations, 18
uploading any scientific data to a shoreside 19
server, including the copying of data off ship 20
for disaster recovery or risk mitigation pur-21
poses; 22
(D) as appropriate, conducting real-time 23
streaming to enable shore-based observers to 24
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participate in ship-based maintenance or re-1
search activities; 2
(E) real-time coordinated viewing of— 3
(i) scientific instrumentation so that it 4
is possible to conduct scientific surveys and 5
seafloor mapping with fully remote subject- 6
matter experts; and 7
(ii) critical operational technology by 8
manufacturers and vendors so that it is 9
possible to carry out maintenance and re-10
pairs to systems with limited expertise on 11
the vessel, with fully remote subject-matter 12
experts advising; and 13
(F) as appropriate, enabling video commu-14
nications to allow improved outreach to, and 15
other educational services for, K–12 students, 16
including occasional remote classroom teaching 17
for instructors at sea to improve oceanographic 18
access for students; and 19
(2) in consultation with the Director of the Cy-20
bersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the 21
Director of the National Institute for Standards and 22
Technology, and the heads of other Federal agen-23
cies, as appropriate— 24
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(A) the cybersecurity recommendations in 1
the report of the private scientific advisory 2
group known as JASON entitled ‘‘Cybersecurity 3
at NSF Major Facilities’’ (JSR–21–10E) and 4
dated October 2021 as applied to the U.S. Aca-5
demic Research Fleet; 6
(B) aligning with international standards 7
and guidance for information security, including 8
the use of encryption for sensitive information, 9
the detection and handling of security incidents, 10
and other areas determined relevant by the Di-11
rector; 12
(C) facilitating access to cybersecurity per-13
sonnel and training of research and support 14
personnel; and 15
(D) the requirements for controlled unclas-16
sified or classified information. 17
Æ
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