Tech bills of the week: Standardizing DHS communications; Nuclear power for space exploration; and more

DHS public communications 

Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Mich., announced the introduction of legislation on Tuesday that would require the Department of Homeland Security to develop an agencywide policy for public-facing communications, in addition to providing social media training for employees.

The Department of Homeland Security Communications, Accuracy, Neutrality, Disclosure, Oversight and Review — or DHS CANDOR — Act seeks to avoid the spread of factual inaccuracies from DHS official communication channels. The DHS secretary would be tasked with crafting departmentwide policy, and subagency leadership would also add components specific to their offices that complement the overarching guidance. Those officials would then submit their updates to the Office of Public Affairs and the Office of the General Counsel for review.

The social media policies also look to address both personal profiles and official agency profiles. DHS employees would receive annual training on what is and is not appropriate to post on their personal accounts, and account managers would be given responsibility for official agency accounts.

Thanedar said in a press release that his measure was introduced in response to DHS “constantly posting inflammatory rhetoric.”

“My bill brings commonsense changes to how DHS operates its social media, to include personal and official accounts, by requiring mandatory media trainings and oversight by the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG),” he added. “It is time that Congress brings an end to this unacceptable behavior.”

Nuclear-powered space exploration

A House proposal rolled out Tuesday looks to leverage nuclear power and propulsion technologies to further galvanize U.S. space exploration, including by establishing a new framework to develop technologies specific to the U.S. Moon-to-Mars missions. 

The Powering the Future of American Space Dominance Act, sponsored by Rep. Mike Kennedy, R-Utah, aims to develop a blueprint for establishing a partnership between NASA and private sector partners to support the creation of advanced lunar power systems, nuclear reactors and other infrastructure needed to sustain long-term space expeditions. 

To take this technology into deep space, we need a sustained national commitment and seamless coordination between government and industry,” Kennedy said in a press release. “I fully support NASA’s missions and I believe Utah is ready to lead the nation in both the power and the propulsion that the future of space exploration demands.”

Understanding data centers’ environmental impact

A bicameral bill seeks to require data centers handling AI workloads to report their environmental and energy demand-related impacts to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The AI Environmental Impacts Act, was reintroduced on Wednesday by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va. The proposal looks to institute reporting requirements for data center owners and operators and would impose a fine if they do not comply.

In addition to mandatory reporting, the bill would direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology to convene a consortium of experts to craft environmental impact measurement standards. This group would include representatives from Native American tribes, local government, academia, industry and more. 

The EPA would also be tasked with compiling and publishing a comprehensive study on data center environmental impacts. 

“As artificial intelligence advances at an extraordinary pace, and as the data centers and energy infrastructure that power it continue to expand, we have a responsibility to fully understand its environmental impacts,” Beyer said in a press release. “Our legislation would ensure that we have better data, coordination, and transparency to identify risks and develop solutions that ensure AI development does not compromise our environment and serves the American people as it brings us into a new age of technology.”

Safeguarding AI use in defense operations…

Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Jack Reed, D-R.I., teamed up to reintroduce the Responsible Artificial Intelligence Defense Act, a bill that looks to install guardrails on use cases of AI in defense capacities.

In a Monday press release, the lawmakers say the measure requires AI-enabled autonomous systems to be deployed in “a way that ensures human operators are able to control, monitor, detect unintended behavior, and manually disengage or deactivate any deployed AI-enabled system, if necessary.”

Two examples cited in the release include any AI uses in nuclear decisionmaking and within mass domestic surveillance operations. The latter example harkens to the dispute between AI developer Anthropic and the Department of Defense earlier this year, in which the company sought to prevent its AI systems from being used in agency workflows involving autonomous weaponry and domestic surveillance.

Simultaneously, the bill also looks to maximize uses of AI in the Pentagon’s workflows. In addition to human oversight, the bill aims to mitigate AI risks by requiring impact assessments for high-risk AI capabilities to protect civil liberties, as well as for DOD to conduct rigorous testing prior to deploying AI-enabled weaponry into field operations. 

“The Department of Defense can use frontier AI models for rapid innovation to ensure that the United States maintains its military supremacy and edge in artificial intelligence without running roughshod over safety concerns,” Coons said. “Threatening our cutting-edge companies with legal and economic punishment when they balk at demands to perform illegal acts is not just un-American – it will stifle innovation, dissuade industry from collaborating with government, and allow China and our adversaries to build insurmountable leads in the field of AI.”

…again

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., also unveiled legislation on Monday to apply more oversight to the Pentagon’s use of AI. Schiff’s bill, the Human Authority in Lethal Operations — or HALO — Act, expands existing DOD safety and ethical requirements while also implementing additional policies. 

These bill’s measures include mandating a chain of command featuring a single designated commander who maintains discretion over the use of force with autonomous and semi-autonomous weaponry, ensuring a comprehensive review structure before the development and fielding of a lethal autonomous and semi-autonomous weapon system and prohibiting the use of AI in surveillance contexts “based solely on their exercise of constitutional rights.”

Similar to Reed and Coons’s bill, the HALO Act would also prohibit the use of unsupervised AI from being involved in the deployment of nuclear weapons. 

“The past few months have shown us that there is an urgent need for commonsense guardrails to ensure the Defense Department’s use of AI is in line with Americans’ national security and privacy priorities,” said Schiff in a press release. “There are good reasons to use AI technology to advance our national security, however – just as with any tool, we cannot depend on technology alone to guide us, particularly when the risks of harm can be fatal.

Understanding AI and the US workforce

Sens. Todd Young, R-Ind., Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Jim Banks, R-Ind., introduced the Artificial Intelligence Data Authorization and Transparency Act on Wednesday to get more detailed information on how and if AI is impacting the U.S. workforce. 

Each of the lawmakers has expressed their desire for the government to provide more public insights into how AI is impacting the labor market, including joining a March letter to the Labor Department, Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census Bureau asking for the agencies to expand data collection related to this topic. 

The senators’ bill looks to codify federal labor market data surveys focused on AI’s economic impact. 

“American workers and businesses are facing a rapidly changing economy,” Kelly said in a press release. “They deserve reliable and up-to-date data to understand how AI is affecting them, their jobs, and their families. To get it right, we need the facts and in this case, that’s the latest numbers.”

The lawmakers’ proposal would modernize existing Bureau of Labor Statistics labor market surveys to account for specific indicators that offer insight into AI-related market changes. Existing surveys like the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, the American Time Use Survey and the National Longitudinal Surveys would be required to include AI-focused data in their collection processes. 

The Census Bureau would have to include questions about AI adoption and workforce impacts into its Business Trends and Outlook Survey on a quarterly basis for the next decade. Both the departments of Labor and Commerce would be tasked with publishing an annual report documenting the impact of AI on the workforce.

Combating nefarious drones

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced legislation on Thursday that looks to invest in counter-drone technologies. 

The bill would grant the U.S. Army the ability to establish new standards for technologies to counter threats posed by drones. These standards would be designed to help warfighters better detect, track and defeat small drones sent from adversaries, improve interoperability between ground forces across Brigade Combat Teams and provide clarity for companies that develop counter-drone technologies so they can meet military requirements.

“By empowering the Secretary of the Army to establish clear interoperability standards and guidelines for companies developing innovative defense technology to counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems, this legislation would ensure our warfighters are equipped to meet the demands of a modern battlefield and able to protect Americans and American interests at home and abroad,” Cornyn said.