II 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1123 

To ensure computer programming, coding, and artificial intelligence 

capabilities in the Armed Forces, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 30, 2023 

Ms. DUCKWORTH introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 

referred to the Committee on Armed Services 

A BILL 

To ensure computer programming, coding, and artificial intelligence capabilities in the Armed Forces, 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 ‘‘Managing Active and 

5 Reserve Tech Talent Effectively Act of 2023’’ or the 

6 ‘‘MARTTE Act of 2023’’. 

7 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

8 In this Act: 

9 (1) COMPUTER PROGRAMMING OCCUPATIONAL

10 AREA.—The term ‘‘computer programming occupaVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:33 Apr 12, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1123.IS S1123

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1 tional area’’ means a technical or nontechnical occu2 pational position that supports computer program3 ming, coding, and artificial intelligence operations 

4 and development, including the following positions: 

5 (A) Data scientists. 

6 (B) Data engineers. 

7 (C) Data analysts. 

8 (D) Software developers. 

9 (E) Machine learning engineers. 

10 (F) Program managers. 

11 (G) Acquisition professionals. 

12 (2) DIGITAL PLATFORM OR APPLICATION.—The 

13 term ‘‘digital platform or application’’ means an on14 line integrated personnel management system or 

15 human capital solution. 

16 (3) HUMAN CAPITAL INFRASTRUCTURE.—The 

17 term ‘‘human capital infrastructure’’ means the poli18 cies and processes that support development, train19 ing, evaluating, and tracking of personnel with spe20 cific occupational skills, experiences, and positions, 

21 including— 

22 (A) career and talent management strategy 

23 and policies; and 


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1 (B) personnel software and databases for 

2 tracking and identifying members of the Armed 

3 Forces with specific capabilities. 

4 (4) QUALIFICATION PROCESS.—The term 

5 ‘‘qualification process’’— 

6 (A) means the process, modeled on a 

7 streamlined version of the process for obtaining 

8 joint qualifications, for training and verifying 

9 members of the Armed Forces to receive career 

10 field or occupational codes associated with com11 puter programming occupational areas; and 

12 (B) may include— 

13 (i) experiences, education, and train14 ing received as a part of military service, 

15 including fellowships, talent exchanges, po16 sitions within government, and educational 

17 courses; and 

18 (ii) in the case of members of the re19 serve components, experiences, education, 

20 and training received in their civilian occu21 pations. 

22 (5) QUALIFIED AND KNOWN STANDARD.—The 

23 term ‘‘qualified and known standard’’ means the de24 fined, reviewed, and published standard for occupa25 tional series or career fields that provides a measurVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:33 Apr 12, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1123.IS S1123

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1 able standard by which the military departments and 

2 combatant commands can assess the ability to meet 

3 their operational planning and steady-state force 

4 presentation requirements during the global force 

5 management process. 

6 SEC. 3. INFRASTRUCTURE FOR COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 

7 SKILLS. 

8 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find9 ings: 

10 (1) To ensure a competitive edge over adver11 saries of the United States, the United States 

12 Armed Forces must attract, build, and maintain a 

13 military force capable of rapidly bringing advanced 

14 technology and innovation to the battlefields. 

15 (2) Congress has supported the Department of 

16 Defense across various programs to attract talent in 

17 key computer programming occupational areas. 

18 (3) The Department of Defense and the mili19 tary departments have issued multiple strategy docu20 ments regarding workforce development for artificial 

21 intelligence, but have yet, as of the date of the en22 actment of this Act, to establish policies for military 

23 occupational specialties or career field development. 

24 (4) Absent strategy implementation and invest25 ment, the Department of Defense and each of the 


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1 military departments currently lack the human cap2 ital infrastructure to quickly leverage critical capa3 bilities relating to computer programming main4 tained by members of the Armed Forces in conflict. 

5 It is imperative to build out such an infrastructure 

6 to leverage such capabilities. 

7 (5) While the Department of Defense has estab8 lished new work roles related to computer program9 ming, artificial intelligence and machine learning 

10 competency, and software engineering under the De11 partment of Defense Cyber Workforce Framework, 

12 there is no requirement for the military departments 

13 to review, modify, and expand their occupational 

14 fields, military occupational specialties, and skills 

15 designators to align with these work roles. Addition16 ally, there is no unified mechanism to evaluate the 

17 utility of capabilities of members of the Armed 

18 Forces in computer programming occupational areas 

19 and to identify gaps or surpluses in such capabilities 

20 across the military departments. 

21 (b) POLICY.— 

22 (1) IN GENERAL.—It shall be a policy of the 

23 Armed Forces to establish a robust human capital 

24 infrastructure that allows for the military depart25 ments to present a qualified and known standard to 


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1 the combatant commands with respect to computer 

2 programming skills, which include technical and 

3 nontechnical skills related to artificial intelligence 

4 and coding. 

5 (2) ELEMENTS.—The policy set forth in para6 graph (1) shall be achieved by— 

7 (A) the development, funding, and execu8 tion of a coherent approach and transparent 

9 strategy across digital platforms and applica10 tions that enable development and presentation 

11 of forces with appropriate programmatic over12 sight; 

13 (B) the development and management of 

14 career field occupational codes aligned with the 

15 work roles related to computer programming, 

16 artificial intelligence and machine learning com17 petency, and software engineering under the 

18 Department of Defense Cyber Workforce 

19 Framework to allow for the military depart20 ments to identify, assess, track, manage, and 

21 assign personnel with computer programming, 

22 coding, and artificial intelligence skills through 

23 established mechanisms, under the policies of 

24 the military departments with respect to formal 


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1 military occupational specialties and career field 

2 management, including— 

3 (i) development of a career field or 

4 separate occupational code for computer 

5 programming occupational areas aligned 

6 with such work roles; and 

7 (ii) development of a unique special 

8 skills or experience designator or qualifica9 tions, tracked independently of a career 

10 field, for computer programming occupa11 tional areas aligned with such work roles; 

12 (C) conducting an assessment of members 

13 of the Armed Forces who have completed the 

14 qualification process of the military department 

15 concerned or who qualify based on existing 

16 skills and training across computer program17 ming occupational areas; and 

18 (D) maintaining continued awareness of 

19 members of the Armed Forces described in sub20 paragraph (C). 

21 (c) RESPONSIBILITIES.—The Secretary of each mili22 tary department, in consultation with the Assistant Sec23 retary of the military department for Manpower and Re24 serve Affairs and the Chief Digital and Artificial IntelVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:33 Apr 12, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1123.IS S1123

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1 ligence Officer of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, 

2 shall— 

3 (1) be responsible for development and dis4 charge of the policy set forth in subsection (b); and 

5 (2) carry out that responsibility through an of6 ficer or employee of the military department as7 signed by the Secretary for that purpose. 

8 (d) DUTIES.—In developing and providing for the 

9 discharge of the policy set forth in subsection (b), the Sec10 retary of each military department, in consultation with 

11 the Assistant Secretary of the military department for 

12 Manpower and Reserve Affairs, the Chief Information Of13 ficer of the military department, the Chief Information Of14 ficer of the Department of Defense, and the Chief Digital 

15 and Artificial Intelligence Officer of the Office of the Sec16 retary of Defense, shall establish a robust human capital 

17 infrastructure to provide the combatant commands force 

18 capability associated with computer programming, coding, 

19 and artificial intelligence skills, including by meeting re20 lated manning, systems, training, and other related fund21 ing requirements. 

22 (e) IMPLEMENTATION PLANS.— 

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

24 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec25 retary of each military department shall submit to 


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1 the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate 

2 and the House of Representatives a plan for imple3 menting the policy set forth in subsection (b). 

4 (2) INCLUSION IN BUDGET JUSTIFICATION MA5 TERIALS.—The Secretary of each military depart6 ment shall include an update on implementation of 

7 the policy set forth in subsection (b) in the budget 

8 justification materials submitted in support of the 

9 Department of Defense’s budget (as submitted with 

10 the budget of the President under section 1105(a) of 

11 title 31, United States Code) for fiscal year 2025 

12 and each fiscal thereafter until all milestones set 

13 forth in the plan submitted under paragraph (1) by 

14 the Secretary have been met. 

15 SEC. 4. RESERVE COMPONENT COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 

16 SKILLS. 

17 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find18 ings: 

19 (1) The reserve components provide critical ca20 pabilities to the Department of Defense to augment 

21 and enhance the active components. Those capabili22 ties include experiences and skills associated with 

23 both the members’ military career fields and their ci24 vilian occupations and positions. 


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1 (2) The Reserve Force Policy Board identified 

2 in August 2020 the inability of the Department of 

3 Defense to leverage the civilian skills of members of 

4 the reserve components when needed. 

5 (3) The Department of Defense no longer main6 tains the Civilian Employment Information Pro7 gram, which provided a database of the civilian em8 ployment information and skills associated with 

9 members of the reserve components. 

10 (4) There is no mechanism to evaluate quali11 fication status and present the surge and augmenta12 tion capabilities of the reserve components in pro13 viding computer programming occupational capabili14 ties, experiences, and skills. 

15 (b) POLICY.— 

16 (1) IN GENERAL.—It shall be a policy of the 

17 Armed Forces to utilize a robust human capital in18 frastructure to bolster the capacity of the reserve 

19 components to evaluate, track, and present a quali20 fied and known standard to the military depart21 ments with respect to computer programming occu22 pational areas. 

23 (2) ELEMENTS.—The policy set forth in para24 graph (1) shall be achieved through— 


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1 (A) a process by which members of a re2 serve component are able to gain occupational 

3 or career field designation based on policies es4 tablished under section 3 using experiences, 

5 training, or skills developed as a result of their 

6 civilian occupations; 

7 (B) awareness, based on policies estab8 lished under section 3, of the existing skills of 

9 members of the reserve components, developed 

10 as a result of their civilian occupations, based 

11 on an initial baseline and ongoing tracking; and 

12 (C) policies that allow the military depart13 ments and the combatant commands to effec14 tively leverage reserve component members who 

15 meet the career field requirements established 

16 pursuant to section 3 to support current oper17 ations fully during reserve periods. 

18 (c) RESPONSIBILITY.—The Secretary of each military 

19 department, in consultation with the Assistant Secretary 

20 of the military department for Manpower and Reserve Af21 fairs, the Chief of the Reserve Command of the military 

22 department, and the Chief of the National Guard Bureau, 

23 shall— 

24 (1) be responsible for development and dis25 charge of the policy set forth in subsection (b); and 


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1 (2) carry out that responsibility through an of2 ficer or employee of that military department as3 signed by the Secretary for that purpose. 

4 (d) DUTIES.—In developing and providing for the 

5 discharge of the policy set forth in subsection (b), the Sec6 retary of each military department, in consultation with 

7 the Assistant Secretary of the military department for 

8 Manpower and Reserve Affairs, the Chief of the Reserve 

9 Command of the military department, and the Chief of 

10 the National Guard Bureau, shall— 

11 (1) establish a process and procedures by which 

12 members of the reserve component of the military 

13 department are able to satisfy qualification stand14 ards for occupational policies established under sec15 tion 3 based on experiences, training, or skills 

16 achieved as a result of their civilian occupations; 

17 (2) conduct an assessment of the members of 

18 the reserve component that maintain computer pro19 gramming, coding, and artificial intelligence skills in 

20 their civilian occupations; 

21 (3) develop and program for a digital platform 

22 or application to track computer programming, cod23 ing, and artificial intelligence skills associated with 

24 computer programming career field policies; and 


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1 (4) develop policies to identify, assign, and inte2 grate members described in paragraph (2) into cur3 rent operations to fully leverage those skills during 

4 reserve periods. 

5 (e) IMPLEMENTATION PLANS.— 

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

7 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec8 retary of each military department and the Chief of 

9 the National Guard Bureau shall each submit to the 

10 Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and 

11 the House of Representatives a plan for imple12 menting the policy set forth in subsection (b). 

13 (2) INCLUSION IN BUDGET JUSTIFICATION MA14 TERIALS.—The Secretary of each military depart15 ment and the Chief of the National Guard Bureau 

16 shall each include an update on implementation of 

17 the policy set forth in subsection (b) in the budget 

18 justification materials submitted in support of the 

19 Department of Defense’s budget (as submitted with 

20 the budget of the President under section 1105(a) of 

21 title 31, United States Code) for fiscal year 2025 

22 and each fiscal year thereafter until all milestones 

23 set forth in the plan submitted under paragraph (1) 


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1 by the Secretary or the Chief, as the case may be, 

2 have been met. 

Æ 


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