II 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 5109 

To amend section 3520A of title 44, United States Code, to extend the 

Chief Data Officer Council’s sunset and add new authorities for improving Federal agency data governance, including to enable reliable and 

secure adoption of emerging technologies and artificial intelligence, and 

for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 19, 2024 

Mr. PETERS (for himself and Mr. YOUNG) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and 

Governmental Affairs 

A BILL 

To amend section 3520A of title 44, United States Code, 

to extend the Chief Data Officer Council’s sunset and 

add new authorities for improving Federal agency data 

governance, including to enable reliable and secure adoption of emerging technologies and 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. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Modernizing Data 

5 Practices to Improve Government Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 3520A of title 44, United 

3 States Code, is amended— 

4 (1) by striking subsections (d) and (e); 

5 (2) by redesignating subsections (a) through (c) 

6 as subsections (b) through (d), respectively; 

7 (3) by inserting before subsection (b), as so re8 designated, the following: 

9 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

10 ‘‘(1) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.—The term 

11 ‘artificial intelligence’— 

12 ‘‘(A) has the meaning given that term in 

13 section 5002 of the National Artificial Intel14 ligence Initiative Act of 2020 (15 U.S.C. 9401); 

15 and 

16 ‘‘(B) includes the artificial systems and 

17 techniques described in paragraphs (1) through 

18 (5) of section 238(g) of the John S. McCain 

19 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 

20 Year 2019 (Public Law 115–232; 10 U.S.C. 

21 4061 note prec.). 

22 ‘‘(2) DATA GOVERNANCE.—The term ‘data gov23 ernance’— 

24 ‘‘(A) means the approach of an agency to 

25 managing data during the lifecycle of the data, 

26 from acquisition, to use, to disposal; and 


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1 ‘‘(B) includes— 

2 ‘‘(i) all actions an agency must take 

3 and the technology and processes an agen4 cy must use to ensure data is secure, pri5 vate, accurate, available, and usable; and 

6 ‘‘(ii) authorities, roles, responsibilities, 

7 organizational structures, policies, proce8 dures, standards, and resources for the 

9 definition, stewardship, production, secu10 rity provenance, and use of data. 

11 ‘‘(3) USE CASE.—The term ‘use case’ means a 

12 description of the ways and circumstances in which 

13 a technology is deployed to perform a specific func14 tion.’’; 

15 (4) in subsection (c), as so redesignated— 

16 (A) by redesignating paragraph (5) as 

17 paragraph (6); 

18 (B) in paragraph (4), by striking the 

19 ‘‘and’’ at the end; and 

20 (C) by inserting after paragraph (4) the 

21 following: 

22 ‘‘(5) identify opportunities and procedures to 

23 improve data governance to— 


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1 ‘‘(A) ensure the data of agencies are trans2 parent, accessible, and of sufficient quality for 

3 the intended use of the data; and 

4 ‘‘(B) support agency heads and their ef5 forts to reliably and securely leverage emerging 

6 technologies and artificial intelligence, to ensure 

7 mission outcomes and improve operational effi8 ciency across agencies; and’’; 

9 (5) in subsection (d)(3), as so redesignated— 

10 (A) by striking ‘‘The Administrator’’ and 

11 inserting the following: 

12 ‘‘(A) ADMINISTRATOR OF THE OFFICE OF

13 ELECTRONIC GOVERNMENT.—The Adminis14 trator’’; and 

15 (B) by inserting after subparagraph (A), 

16 as so designated, the following: 

17 ‘‘(B) APPOINTED MEMBERS.—The Direc18 tor shall appoint a representative from among 

19 Chief Artificial Intelligence Officers to serve on 

20 the Council.’’; and 

21 (6) by adding at the end the following: 

22 ‘‘(e) DATA GOVERNANCE REPORTS.—The Council 

23 shall submit to the Director, the Committee on Homeland 

24 Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate, and the 


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1 Committee on Oversight and Accountability of the House 

2 of Representatives— 

3 ‘‘(1) a biennial report on the work of the Coun4 cil, including any updates to the recommendations 

5 provided in the report required under paragraph (2) 

6 of this subsection; 

7 ‘‘(2) not later than 1 year after the date of en8 actment of this subsection, a report with rec9 ommendations and best practices for agencies on de10 veloping datasets, data governance policies, and in11 frastructure to enable adoption and use of emerging 

12 technologies and artificial intelligence, including for 

13 use in training, testing, and operation of artificial 

14 intelligence within agencies that includes— 

15 ‘‘(A) an assessment of key data governance 

16 and sharing challenges preventing adoption of 

17 emerging technologies and artificial intelligence 

18 across agencies; 

19 ‘‘(B) an assessment of ways to strengthen 

20 and clarify roles and responsibilities related to 

21 data governance between senior agency leaders, 

22 including the Chief Information Officer, the 

23 Chief Information Security Officer, the Chief 

24 Financial Officer, the Chief Privacy Officer, the 


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1 Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer, and the 

2 Chief Acquisition Officer; 

3 ‘‘(C) recommendations for data governance 

4 best practices, including— 

5 ‘‘(i) best practices to ensure data used 

6 for testing, training, and operation of arti7 ficial intelligence is reliable, relevant to the 

8 task, representative of the impacted indi9 viduals of the artificial intelligence system, 

10 transparent, high quality, and protects the 

11 privacy and personally identifiable informa12 tion of individuals; and 

13 ‘‘(ii) defining key data standards, in14 cluding data quality; 

15 ‘‘(D) a prioritization of agency artificial in16 telligence use cases that address a critical need 

17 across the Federal Government, for which new 

18 or shared datasets are needed to support adop19 tion; 

20 ‘‘(E) identification of existing data avail21 able to 1 or more agencies that would benefit 

22 other such agencies if the data were shared or 

23 made available; 


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1 ‘‘(F) recommendations for ways to address 

2 increases in risks, including through training of 

3 relevant agency employees, associated with— 

4 ‘‘(i) the potential for misuse of, mis5 management of, and unauthorized access 

6 to data and personally identifiable informa7 tion of individuals when an agency 

8 leverages data for use in artificial intel9 ligence, including identification of software 

10 or hardware solutions, technical processes, 

11 techniques, or other technological means of 

12 mitigating privacy risks arising from data 

13 processing; or 

14 ‘‘(ii) increasing access to the data of 

15 the agency for the purposes of supporting 

16 a cross-Government mission; 

17 ‘‘(G) recommendations for data ownership 

18 and retention policies and procedures, including 

19 policies and procedures to ensure that agency 

20 contracts to procure artificial intelligence in21 clude any necessary clauses to ensure that the 

22 Federal Government— 

23 ‘‘(i) retains sufficient rights to data, 

24 and any modifications to that data; 


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1 ‘‘(ii) avoids vendor lock-in and retains 

2 the ability to facilitate or conduct the con3 tinued design, development, testing, and 

4 operation of artificial intelligence by the 

5 Federal Government; and 

6 ‘‘(iii) can conduct pre-procurement re7 views of artificial intelligence to assess po8 tential error issues; 

9 ‘‘(H) criteria agencies should consider 

10 when using data to train artificial intelligence 

11 used by agencies, including recommendations 

12 for— 

13 ‘‘(i) ways to increase transparency of 

14 training data for the public and for agency 

15 employees using the relevant artificial in16 telligence system software; 

17 ‘‘(ii) processes and procedures to ana18 lyze and test training data for potential 

19 risks; 

20 ‘‘(iii) criteria for determining how to 

21 preserve the interests of the Federal Gov22 ernment; and 

23 ‘‘(iv) performance evaluation metrics 

24 to ensure that an artificial intelligence sys25 tem performs as intended; 


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1 ‘‘(I) recommendations for ways to expand 

2 public access to Federal data assets in a ma3 chine-readable format while also taking into ac4 count security considerations, including the risk 

5 that, while information in an individual data 

6 asset may not pose a security risk in isolation, 

7 such information could pose a security risk 

8 when combined with other data assets; 

9 ‘‘(J) recommendations for defining, gener10 ating, using, and ensuring the privacy and secu11 rity of synthetic data in the Federal Govern12 ment, including— 

13 ‘‘(i) a formalized definition of syn14 thetic data generation for government use, 

15 including specifying definitions for data 

16 which is fully or partially synthetic; 

17 ‘‘(ii) guidance for agencies on best 

18 practices around synthetic data generation 

19 and use, including tools or techniques 

20 agencies should take to— 

21 ‘‘(I) mitigate privacy and security 

22 risks; 

23 ‘‘(II) ensure agencies practice ap24 propriate processes to ensure the ac25 curacy and quality of synthetic data 


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1 and the appropriateness for the in2 tended use of the synthetic data by 

3 the agency; 

4 ‘‘(III) adopt the appropriate 

5 techniques to validate synthetic data, 

6 including data profiling, data consist7 ency, data integrity, and data docu8 mentation; and 

9 ‘‘(IV) communicate opportunities, 

10 risks, and limitations of synthetic data 

11 internally to agencies and externally 

12 to the public; 

13 ‘‘(iii) opportunities across the Federal 

14 Government and within specific agencies 

15 for embracing or avoiding the use of syn16 thetic data; and 

17 ‘‘(iv) opportunities for the Federal 

18 Government to partner with public and 

19 private sector entities in the development 

20 and sharing of data, including synthetic 

21 data, to help in the adoption of emerging 

22 technologies and artificial intelligence; and 

23 ‘‘(K) for subparagraphs (A) through (J), 

24 an indication of how agencies can incorporate 

25 the respective recommendations and best pracVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:23 Sep 20, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S5109.IS S5109

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1 tices into existing agency processes and statu2 tory requirements. 

3 ‘‘(f) DATA GOVERNANCE GUIDANCE.—The Director, 

4 upon receipt of a report required under subsection (e), 

5 may issue guidance to agencies with respect to the imple6 mentation of the recommendations of the report. 

7 ‘‘(g) DATA MANAGEMENT REPORT.—Not later than 

8 270 days after the date of enactment of this subsection, 

9 the Director, in consultation with the Council, shall submit 

10 to Congress an annual report with recommendations to 

11 clarify and enhance the roles of the Chief Data Officers 

12 across the Federal Government relating to data govern13 ance for artificial intelligence, including— 

14 ‘‘(1) an inventory of all Chief Data Officers of 

15 agencies, including, with respect to each agency— 

16 ‘‘(A) any additional roles or titles the Chief 

17 Data Officer holds at the agency; 

18 ‘‘(B) the organizational structure of the 

19 agency, including any official to whom the Chief 

20 Data Officer reports to within the agency; and 

21 ‘‘(C) the respective roles, responsibilities, 

22 and statutory authorities relating to data and 

23 artificial intelligence of the Chief Data Officer 

24 at the agency; 


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1 ‘‘(2) an identification of skills and resources 

2 needed by Chief Data Officers and their staffs to 

3 support artificial intelligence system adoption at 

4 agencies; and 

5 ‘‘(3) recommendations for suggested collabora6 tion opportunities between the Council and other 

7 interagency councils to improve data governance best 

8 practices across government, including— 

9 ‘‘(A) the Chief Financial Officers Council; 

10 ‘‘(B) the Chief Human Capital Officers 

11 Council; 

12 ‘‘(C) the Chief Acquisition Officers Coun13 cil; 

14 ‘‘(D) the Federal Privacy Council; 

15 ‘‘(E) the Chief Information Officers Coun16 cil; and 

17 ‘‘(F) other key groups of the Federal Gov18 ernment. 

19 ‘‘(h) EVALUATION.—Not later than 2 years after the 

20 date of enactment of this subsection, and not less fre21 quently than once every 2 years thereafter, the Comp22 troller General shall submit to Congress a report on— 

23 ‘‘(1) whether the duties of the Council improved 

24 the use of evidence and program evaluation in the 

25 Federal Government; and 


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1 ‘‘(2) any barriers or challenges preventing the 

2 Council from accomplishing the objectives under this 

3 section or the amendments made by the Modernizing 

4 Data Practices to Improve Government Act.’’. 

5 (b) SUNSET.—Beginning on the date that is 7 years 

6 after the date of enactment of this Act, the amendments 

7 made by this Act shall have no force or effect. 

Æ 


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