II 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 3187 

To establish the Office of Technologists within the Federal Trade Commission. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

NOVEMBER 4, 2021 

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

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, 

Science, and Transportation 

A BILL 

To establish the Office of Technologists within the Federal 

Trade Commission. 

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 ‘‘Federal Trade Com5 mission Technologists Act of 2021’’. 

6 SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE OFFICE OF TECH7 NOLOGISTS. 

8 (a) OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGISTS.—Not later than 

9 180 days after the date of enactment of this section, the 

10 Commission shall establish within the Commission the OfVerDate Sep 11 2014 05:58 Nov 05, 2021 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3187.IS S3187

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1 fice of Technologists (in this section referred to as the 

2 ‘‘Office’’) to advise the Commission on technology matters, 

3 including the Commission’s use of technology, technical 

4 aspects of law enforcement actions, and technology policy 

5 recommendations. 

6 (b) PERSONNEL.— 

7 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall ap8 point to positions in the Office— 

9 (A) not less than 25 technologists; and 

10 (B) other necessary employees. 

11 (2) DIRECT HIRE AUTHORITY.—The Commis12 sion may make appointments of technologists under 

13 paragraph (1) without regard to the provisions of 

14 subchapter I of chapter 33 of title 5, United States 

15 Code. 

16 (3) CALCULATION OF NUMBER OF TECH17 NOLOGISTS.—For purposes of paragraph (1)(A), the 

18 number of individuals appointed to a position as a 

19 technologist shall be determined on a full-time equiv20 alent basis, except that an appointment of an indi21 vidual to a position as a technologist on a term or 

22 temporary basis shall be counted as an appointment 

23 to a full-time position, without regard to the number 

24 of hours in the administrative workweek of the indi25 vidual. 


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1 (4) COMPENSATION.— 

2 (A) RATE OF PAY.—Subject to subpara3 graph (B), in order to recruit and retain quali4 fied technologists, the Commission may fix the 

5 rate of pay, including compensation for night 

6 and overtime work and other premium pay, of 

7 any technologist appointed under paragraph 

8 (1), as the Commission considers necessary for 

9 the interest of the Federal Government and just 

10 to the individuals employed. 

11 (B) MAXIMUM.—The total amount payable 

12 to a technologist appointed under paragraph 

13 (1), including compensation for night and over14 time work and other premium pay, during any 

15 pay period may not exceed the rate of basic pay 

16 payable for a position at level II of the Execu17 tive Schedule under section 5313 of title 5, 

18 United States Code. 

19 (C) TIME OFF.—With respect to a tech20 nologist appointed under paragraph (1) who is 

21 not eligible for overtime or other premium pay, 

22 the Commission may grant such technologist 

23 compensatory time off from duty for overtime 

24 work performed. 

25 (c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 


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1 (1) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 

2 means the Federal Trade Commission. 

3 (2) TECHNOLOGIST.—The term ‘‘technologist’’ 

4 means an individual with training and expertise re5 garding the state of the art in information tech6 nology, including product development, supply chain 

7 management, data privacy and analytics, algorithms, 

8 information security, network security, the manufac9 turing of hardware, software development, computer 

10 science, or other related fields. 

11 (d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATION.—There is 

12 authorized to be appropriated such sums as necessary to 

13 carry out the requirements of this section. 

Æ 


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