II 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3965 

To accelerate the application of artificial intelligence in the Department of 

Defense and to strengthen the workforce that pertains to artificial intelligence, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 16, 2020 

Mr. HEINRICH (for himself and Mr. PORTMAN) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services 

A BILL 

To accelerate the application of artificial intelligence in the 

Department of Defense and to strengthen the workforce 

that pertains to artificial intelligence, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

4 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 

5 ‘‘Artificial Intelligence for the Armed Forces Act of 

6 2020’’. 

7 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 

8 this Act is as follows: 


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Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 

TITLE I—DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 

LEADERSHIP 

Sec. 101. Organizational placement of Director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center. 

Sec. 102. Grade of Director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center. 

TITLE II—STRENGTHENING THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WORKFORCE 

Sec. 201. Increasing human resource team literacy in artificial intelligence. 

Sec. 202. Guidance and direction on use of direct hiring processes for artificial 

intelligence professionals and other data science and software 

development personnel. 

Sec. 203. Waiver of qualification standards for General Schedule positions in 

artificial intelligence. 

Sec. 204. Modifying the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery Test to 

address computational thinking. 

1 TITLE I—DEPARTMENT OF DE2 FENSE ARTIFICIAL INTELLI3 GENCE LEADERSHIP 

4 SEC. 101. ORGANIZATIONAL PLACEMENT OF DIRECTOR OF 

5 THE JOINT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CEN6 TER. 

7 (a) AUTHORITY.— 

8 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Defense 

9 shall exercise authority and direction over the Joint 

10 Artificial Intelligence Center. 

11 (2) LIMITATION ON DELEGATION.—The author12 ity of the Secretary under this section may not be 

13 delegated below the level of the Deputy Secretary of 

14 Defense. 

15 (b) DIRECT REPORTING TO SECRETARY OF DE16 FENSE.—The Director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence 


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1 Center shall report directly to the Secretary or the Deputy 

2 Secretary on matters relating to artificial intelligence pol3 icy, priorities, practices, and resourcing. 

4 SEC. 102. GRADE OF DIRECTOR OF THE JOINT ARTIFICIAL 

5 INTELLIGENCE CENTER. 

6 An officer appointed to serve as Director of the Joint 

7 Artificial Intelligence Center shall, while so serving, have 

8 the grade of lieutenant general in the Army, Air Force, 

9 or Marine Corps or vice admiral in the Navy. 

10 TITLE II—STRENGTHENING THE 

11 DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 

12 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 

13 WORKFORCE 

14 SEC. 201. INCREASING HUMAN RESOURCE TEAM LITERACY 

15 IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. 

16 (a) DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE.— 

17 (1) TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION PROGRAM

18 REQUIRED.—Not later than one year after the date 

19 of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of De20 fense shall develop a training and certification pro21 gram on software development, data science, and ar22 tificial intelligence that is tailored to the needs of 

23 the covered human resources workforce. 

24 (2) REQUIREMENTS.—The course required by 

25 paragraph (1) shall— 


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1 (A) provide a generalist’s introduction to 

2 software development and business processes, 

3 data management practices relating to machine 

4 learning, deep learning, artificial intelligence, 

5 and artificial intelligence workforce roles; and 

6 (B) address hiring options and processes 

7 available for software developers, data sci8 entists, and artificial intelligence professionals, 

9 including direct hiring authorities, excepted 

10 service authorities, the Intergovernmental Per11 sonnel Act of 1970 (42 U.S.C. 4701 et seq.), 

12 and authorities for hiring special government 

13 employees and highly qualified experts. 

14 (3) OBJECTIVE.—It shall be the objective of the 

15 Department of Defense to provide the training 

16 course developed pursuant to paragraph (1) to the 

17 covered human resources workforce in such a man18 ner that— 

19 (A) in the first year, 20 percent of the 

20 workforce is certified as having successfully 

21 completed the course; and 

22 (B) in each year thereafter, an additional 

23 10 percent of the workforce is certified, until 

24 the Department achieves and maintains a staVerDate Sep 11 2014 05:18 Jun 26, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3965.IS S3965

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1 tus in which 80 percent of the covered human 

2 resources workforce is so certified. 

3 (b) OTHER NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCIES.—The 

4 Secretary of Defense shall work with the Attorney Gen5 eral, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of 

6 National Intelligence, or the head of any element of the 

7 intelligence community to offer the training and certifi8 cation program developed pursuant to subsection (a) to 

9 employees of other national security agencies and to en10 courage the heads of such agencies to achieve a level of 

11 certification comparable to the objectives established for 

12 the Department of Defense. 

13 (c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

14 (1) The term ‘‘covered human resources work15 force’’ means human resources professionals, hiring 

16 managers, and recruiters who are or will be respon17 sible for hiring software developers, data scientists, 

18 or artificial intelligence professionals. 

19 (2) The term ‘‘intelligence community’’ has the 

20 meaning given such term in section 3 of the Na21 tional Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3003). 

22 (d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 

23 authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of Defense 

24 to carry out subsection (a) $2,500,000 for fiscal year 

25 2021. 


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1 SEC. 202. GUIDANCE AND DIRECTION ON USE OF DIRECT 

2 HIRING PROCESSES FOR ARTIFICIAL INTEL3 LIGENCE PROFESSIONALS AND OTHER DATA 

4 SCIENCE AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT 

5 PERSONNEL. 

6 (a) GUIDANCE REQUIRED.—Not later than 180 days 

7 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 

8 of Defense shall issue guidance to the secretaries of the 

9 military departments and the heads of the defense compo10 nents on improved use of the direct hiring processes for 

11 artificial intelligence professionals and other data science 

12 and software development personnel. 

13 (b) OBJECTIVE.—The objective of the guidance re14 quired by subsection (a) shall be to ensure that organiza15 tional leaders assume greater responsibility for the results 

16 of civilian hiring of artificial intelligence professionals and 

17 other data science and software development personnel. 

18 (c) CONTENTS OF GUIDANCE.—At a minimum, the 

19 guidance required by subsection (a) shall— 

20 (1) instruct human resources professionals and 

21 hiring authorities to utilize direct hiring authorities 

22 (including excepted service authorities) for the hiring 

23 of artificial intelligence professionals and other data 

24 science and software development personnel, to the 

25 maximum extent practicable; 


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1 (2) instruct hiring authorities, when using di2 rect hiring authorities, to prioritize utilization of 

3 panels of subject matter experts over human re4 sources professionals to assess applicant qualifica5 tions and determine which applicants are best quali6 fied for a position; 

7 (3) authorize and encourage the use of 

8 ePortfolio reviews to provide insight into the pre9 vious work of applicants as a tangible demonstration 

10 of capabilities and contribute to the assessment of 

11 applicant qualifications by subject matter experts; 

12 (4) authorize the secretaries of the military de13 partments and the heads of the defense components 

14 to waive qualification standards for General Sched15 ule positions established by the Office of Personnel 

16 Management that would unnecessarily restrict the 

17 judgment of the subject matter experts as to the 

18 best qualified applicants, to the extent permitted by 

19 law; and 

20 (5) authorize and encourage the use of referral 

21 bonuses for recruitment and hiring of highly quali22 fied artificial intelligence professionals and other 

23 data science and software development personnel in 

24 accordance with volume 451 of Department of De25 fense Instruction 1400.25, or successor instruction. 


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1 (d) REPORT.— 

2 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year 

3 after the date on which the guidance is issued under 

4 subsection (a), the Secretary shall submit to the con5 gressional defense committees a report on the guid6 ance issued pursuant to subsection (a). 

7 (2) CONTENTS.—At a minimum, the report 

8 submitted under paragraph (1) shall address— 

9 (A) the objectives of the guidance and the 

10 manner in which the guidance seeks to achieve 

11 those objectives; and 

12 (B) the effect of the guidance on the hiring 

13 process for artificial intelligence professionals 

14 and other data science and software develop15 ment personnel, including the effect on— 

16 (i) hiring time; 

17 (ii) the use of direct hiring authority; 

18 (iii) the use of subject matter experts; 

19 and 

20 (iv) the quality of new hires, as as21 sessed by hiring managers and organiza22 tional leaders. 


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1 SEC. 203. WAIVER OF QUALIFICATION STANDARDS FOR 

2 GENERAL SCHEDULE POSITIONS IN ARTIFI3 CIAL INTELLIGENCE. 

4 (a) DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE.—Notwithstanding 

5 any other provision of law, an officer with a grade of major 

6 general or greater in the Army, Air Force, or Marine 

7 Corps or rear admiral or greater in the Navy and a civilian 

8 employed by the Department of Defense in a position of 

9 equivalent authority may waive any General Schedule 

10 qualification standard established by the Director of the 

11 Office of Personnel Management in the case of any appli12 cant for a position in artificial intelligence in the Depart13 ment of Defense who is determined by a hiring manager, 

14 in consultation with subject matter experts, to be the best 

15 qualified candidate for the position. 

16 (b) OTHER NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCIES.— 

17 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the Office of 

18 Personnel Management shall establish a process by 

19 which the Attorney General, the Secretary of Home20 land Security, the Secretary of State, the Secretary 

21 of Commerce, the Director of National Intelligence, 

22 and the head of any element of the intelligence com23 munity (as defined in section 3 of the National Se24 curity Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3003)) may request 

25 an exception to any General Schedule qualification 

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1 termines that national security needs would best be 

2 met by hiring managers making an independent 

3 judgment about qualifications and pay grades for a 

4 position in artificial intelligence with the advice of 

5 subject matter experts. 

6 (2) SCOPE.—The process required by para7 graph (1) shall provide for requests to be made for 

8 individual billets, for position descriptions, or for 

9 categories of individual billets or position descrip10 tions at the discretion of the agency head. 

11 (3) LIMITATION.—The authority under this 

12 subsection may be used for the hiring of not more 

13 than 100 individuals. 

14 SEC. 204. MODIFYING THE ARMED SERVICES VOCATIONAL 

15 APTITUDE BATTERY TEST TO ADDRESS COM16 PUTATIONAL THINKING. 

17 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year after the 

18 date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense 

19 shall modify the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Bat20 tery test to add a new subtest addressing computational 

21 thinking skills relevant to military applications, including 

22 problem decomposition, abstraction, pattern recognition, 

23 analytical ability, the identification of variables involved 

24 in data representation, and the ability to create algorithms 

25 and solution expressions. 


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1 (b) USE.—The Secretary shall use the results of the 

2 subtest added under subsection (a) in the same manner 

3 as the results of existing subtests to place personnel in 

4 career fields and to identify candidates for further train5 ing. 

Æ 


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