II 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 5058 

To require the Secretary of Defense to submit to Congress a strategy to 

improve cooperation between the Department of Defense and allies and 

partners of the United States located in the Middle East so as to 

improve use of partner-sharing network capabilities to facilitate joint 

defense efforts among the United States and such allies and partners, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 16, 2024 

Ms. ERNST (for herself and Mrs. GILLIBRAND) introduced the following bill; 

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

A BILL 

To require the Secretary of Defense to submit to Congress 

a strategy to improve cooperation between the Department of Defense and allies and partners of the United 

States located in the Middle East so as to improve use 

of partner-sharing network capabilities to facilitate joint 

defense efforts among the United States and such allies 

and partners, 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, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Artificial Intelligence 

3 Allied Collaboration for Crucial Operations, Research, and 

4 Development Act of 2024’’ or the ‘‘AI ACCORD Act of 

5 2024’’. 

6 SEC. 2. JOINT PARTNER-SHARING NETWORK CAPABILITIES 

7 FOR MIDDLE EAST DEFENSE INTEGRATION. 

8 (a) STRATEGY.— 

9 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 

10 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec11 retary of Defense shall submit to the congressional 

12 defense committees a strategy to improve coopera13 tion between the Department of Defense and allies 

14 and partners of the United States located in the 

15 Middle East so as to improve use of partner-sharing 

16 network capabilities to facilitate joint defense efforts 

17 among the United States and such allies and part18 ners to protect the people, infrastructure, and terri19 tory of the United States and such allies and part20 ners from state and non-state actors determined by 

21 the Secretary to undermine the national security in22 terests of the United States. 

23 (2) CONTENTS.—The strategy submitted pursu24 ant to paragraph (1) shall include the following: 

25 (A) A summary of ongoing efforts by 

26 United States Central Command (CENTCOM), 


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1 or in which United States Central Command is 

2 participating, to implement a joint partner3 sharing network capability integrated with the 

4 assets of allies and partners of the United 

5 States who are located in the Middle East. 

6 (B) A summary of challenges to further fa7 cilitate the implementation of a joint partner8 sharing network capability integrated with the 

9 assets of Middle Eastern allies and partners, in10 cluding actions or decisions that need to be 

11 taken by other organizations. 

12 (C) A recommendation of actions that can 

13 be taken to address the challenges summarized 

14 pursuant to subparagraph (B). 

15 (D) An assessment of how the implementa16 tion of a joint partner-sharing network capa17 bility that would be available to integrate with 

18 allies and partners of the United States in the 

19 Middle East that— 

20 (i) could demonstrate new tools, tech21 niques, or methodologies for data-driven 

22 decision making; 

23 (ii) accelerate sharing of relevant 

24 data, data visualization, and data analysis 

25 implemented through cryptographic data 


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1 access controls and enforcing existing data 

2 sharing restrictions across multiple secu3 rity levels; and 

4 (iii) leverage current activities in 

5 multi-cloud computing environments to re6 duce the reliance on solely hardware-based 

7 networking solutions. 

8 (E) A recommendation of actions that can 

9 be taken to implement a joint partner-sharing 

10 network capability integrated with allies and 

11 partners of the United States in the Middle 

12 East, including identification of policy, re13 source, workforce, or other shortfalls. 

14 (F) Such other matters as the Secretary 

15 considers relevant. 

16 (3) METRICS.—The Secretary shall identify 

17 metrics to assess progress in the implementation of 

18 the strategy required by paragraph (1). 

19 (4) FORM.—The strategy required by para20 graph (1) shall be submitted in unclassified form, 

21 but may include a classified annex. 

22 (5) PROTECTION OF SENSITIVE INFORMA23 TION.—No activity may be carried out under this 

24 section without an approved program protection plan 

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1 nology and information protection protocols that 

2 protect sensitive information and the national secu3 rity interests of the United States. 

4 (b) ESTABLISHMENT OF A COMBATANT COMMAND

5 WARFIGHTER FORUM FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.— 

6 (1) POLICIES AND PROCEDURES REQUIRED.— 

7 Not later than 180 days after the date of the enact8 ment of this Act, the Chief Data and Artificial Intel9 ligence Officer of the Department of Defense 

10 (CDAO) shall issue policies and procedures to estab11 lish a forum for warfighters in the combatant com12 mands on artificial intelligence to help promote co13 ordination and interchange on issues relating to arti14 ficial intelligence tools, methodologies, training, exer15 cises, and operational research within and among 

16 the combatant commands. 

17 (2) PURPOSES FOR CONSIDERATION.—In devel18 oping the policies and procedures required by para19 graph (1) for establishing the forum described in 

20 such paragraph, the Chief shall consider the fol21 lowing as primary purposes of the forum: 

22 (A) Identification of use cases for the near23 term application of artificial intelligence tools, 

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1 ligence tools, data, methodologies, or tech2 niques. 

3 (B) Categorization of risk for the use cases 

4 identified pursuant to subparagraph (A), and 

5 consideration of risk-management process or 

6 other procedural guidelines for enforcing cur7 rent policy. 

8 (C) Identification and prioritization of cur9 rent artificial intelligence tools or emerging 

10 technologies applicable to the use-cases identi11 fied pursuant to subparagraph (A) that also 

12 meet policy guidelines and standards set by the 

13 Department. 

14 (D) Identification of shortfalls in training 

15 or billets for artificial intelligence-related exper16 tise or personnel within the combatant com17 mands. 

18 (E) Coordination on training and experi19 mentation venues, including with regional part20 ners and allies. 

21 (F) Identification of opportunities for en22 hanced cooperation with regional partners and 

23 allies. 

24 (G) Identification of opportunities for the 

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1 ments of the Department of Defense, such as 

2 the Defense Innovation Unit, to better procure 

3 commercial artificial intelligence capabilities, in4 cluding from partner and allied industrial 

5 bases. 

6 (3) REPORT.—(A) Not later than one year after 

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

8 of Defense shall submit to the congressional defense 

9 committees a report on the progress made in estab10 lishing the forum described in paragraph (1). 

11 (B) The report submitted pursuant to subpara12 graph (A) shall include the following: 

13 (i) A summary of the policies and proce14 dures issued pursuant to paragraph (1). 

15 (ii) A list of all meetings of the forum de16 scribed in paragraph (1) that have occurred 

17 since the date of the enactment of this Act. 

18 (iii) An itinerary of the meetings listed 

19 pursuant to clause (ii). 

20 (iv) A summary of the efforts of the forum 

21 described in paragraph (1) to fulfill each of the 

22 purposes considered under paragraph (2). 

23 (v) Recommendations, based on findings of 

24 the forum described in paragraph (1), for legis25 lative action to accelerate the adoption by the 


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1 combatant commands of artificial intelligence 

2 capabilities. 

3 (c) DEFINITION OF CONGRESSIONAL DEFENSE COM4 MITTEES.—In this section, the term ‘‘congressional de5 fense committees’’ has the meaning given such term in 

6 section 101(a) of title 10, United States Code. 

Æ 


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