I 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 7139 

To direct the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology 

to commission a study on the impact of the activities of China on 

standards for emerging technologies. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 8, 2020 

Mr. SCHWEIKERT (for himself and Mr. BERA) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology 

A BILL 

To direct the Director of the National Institute of Standards 

and Technology to commission a study on the impact 

of the activities of China on standards for emerging 

technologies. 

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 ‘‘Ensuring American 

5 Leadership over International Standards Act of 2019’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 


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1 (1) Standards serve as the building blocks for 

2 product development and help ensure functionality, 

3 interoperability, and safety. 

4 (2) Global cooperation and coordination on 

5 standards for emerging technologies will be critical 

6 for having a consistent set of rules to enable market 

7 competition, preclude barriers to trade, and allow in8 novation to flourish. 

9 (3) China’s ‘‘Standardization Reform Plan’’ 

10 and ‘‘Five-Year Plan for Standardization’’ highlight 

11 its high-level goals to establish China as a ‘‘stand12 ards power’’ by 2020, participate in at least half of 

13 all standards drafting and revision efforts in recog14 nized international standards setting organizations, 

15 and to strengthen China’s participation in the gov16 ernance of international standards setting organiza17 tions. 

18 (4) As emerging technologies develop for global 

19 deployment, it is critical that the United States and 

20 its allies continue to shape standards that underpin 

21 the technologies themselves, and the future inter22 national governance of these technologies. 

23 (5) United States position on standardization in 

24 emerging technologies will be critical to United 

25 States economic competitiveness. 


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1 (6) NIST is in a unique position to strengthen 

2 United States leadership in standards development, 

3 particularly for emerging technologies, to ensure 

4 continuing United States economic competitiveness 

5 and national security. 

6 SEC. 3. EXTERNAL STUDY. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 

8 date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of the Na9 tional Institute of Standards and Technology shall enter 

10 into an agreement with the National Academies of 

11 Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to conduct a study, 

12 and make recommendations with respect to the impact of 

13 Chinese government policies and standards development 

14 on international bodies engaged in developing and setting 

15 international standards for emerging technologies. The 

16 study may include— 

17 (1) an assessment of how China’s role in inter18 national standards setting organizations has grown 

19 over the previous 10 years, including in leadership 

20 roles in standards-drafting technical committees, and 

21 the quality or value of that participation; 

22 (2) an assessment of the impact of China’s 

23 standardization strategy, as identified in the ‘‘Chi24 nese Standard 2035’’ on international bodies en25 gaged in developing and setting standards for select 


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1 emerging technologies, such as advanced commu2 nication technologies or cloud computing and cloud 

3 services; 

4 (3) an examination of whether international 

5 standards for select emerging technologies are being 

6 designed to promote Chinese government interests 

7 that are expressed in the ‘‘Made in China 2025’’ 

8 plan to the exclusion of other participants; 

9 (4) an examination of how the previous prac10 tices China has utilized while participating in inter11 national standards setting organizations may foretell 

12 how China will engage in international standardiza13 tion activities of critical technologies like artificial 

14 intelligence and quantum information science, and 

15 what may be the consequences; 

16 (5) recommendations on how the United States 

17 can take steps to mitigate Chinese influence in inter18 national standards-setting bodies and identify voting 

19 strategies with respect to international consensus 

20 standards for advanced wireless communications 

21 technologies and other critical technologies; and 

22 (6) any other areas the Academies believe is im23 portant to address. 

24 (b) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—The agreement entered 

25 into under subsection (a) shall require the National AcadVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:09 Jun 29, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7139.IH H7139

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1 emies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to, not later 

2 than 2 years after the date of the enactment of this Act— 

3 (1) submit to the Committee on Science, Space, 

4 and Technology of the House of Representatives and 

5 the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Trans6 portation of the Senate a report containing the find7 ings and recommendations of the review conducted 

8 under subsection (a); and 

9 (2) make a copy of such report available on a 

10 publicly accessible website. 

11 (c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

12 are authorized to be appropriated to the Director to carry 

13 out this section $1,000,000 for fiscal year 2020. 

Æ 


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