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[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1471 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>

116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1471

   To require digital engineering as a core competency of the Armed 
                    Forces, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 15, 2019

  Mr. Heinrich (for himself and Mr. Portman) introduced the following 
   bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed 
                                Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
   To require digital engineering as a core competency of the Armed 
                    Forces, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Armed Forces Digital Advantage 
Act''.

SEC. 2. DIGITAL ENGINEERING AS A CORE COMPETENCY OF THE ARMED FORCES.

    (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The National Defense Strategy states that the 
        Department of Defense will need to ``emphasize new skills and 
        complement our current workforce with information experts, data 
        scientists, computer programmers, and basic science researchers 
        and engineers--to use information, not simply manage it. The 
        Department will also continue to explore streamlined, non-
        traditional pathways to bring critical skills into service, 
        expanding access to outside expertise''.
            (2) The Department workforce is challenged in its ability 
        to develop, use, update, and store digital information.
            (3) Transformational technologies, including Artificial 
        Intelligence, 5G telecommunications services, and cloud 
        computing, are presenting new opportunities and challenges for 
        the Department.
            (4) Department modernization programs depend almost 
        entirely on the integration of state-of-the-art software, data, 
        and information technology, and will require a workforce that 
        understands digital engineering.
            (5) The establishment of the Joint Artificial Intelligence 
        Center (JAIC) in 2018 was an important step to accelerate the 
        delivery of, and scale the Department-wide impact of, 
        artificial intelligence-enabled capabilities, and a workforce 
        experienced in computer sciences and digital engineering will 
        be critical to the success of the Center and the Department.
            (6) The Defense Innovation Board stated that, in order to 
        fulfill its mission in the future, the Department will need a 
        ``human capital strategy that will ensure that DoD can grow and 
        maintain adequate computer science capability and capacity for 
        the wide range of software-centric requirements that are unmet 
        today and will only continue to grow''.
    (b) Policy.--
            (1) In general.--It shall be a policy of the Armed Forces 
        to promote and maintain digital engineering as a core 
        competency of the Armed Forces, which policy shall be achieved 
        by--
                    (A) the recruitment, development, and 
                incentivization of retention in and to the Armed Forces 
                of individuals with aptitude, experience, proficient 
                expertise, or a combination thereof in digital 
                engineering;
                    (B) the development and maintenance of multiple 
                career tracks on digital engineering, and related 
                digital competencies (including data science, machine 
                learning, software engineering, software product 
                management, and artificial intelligence product 
                management) for members of the Armed Forces, including 
                the development and maintenance of training, education, 
                talent management, incentives, and promotion policies 
                in support of members at all levels of such career 
                tracks; and
                    (C) the development and application of appropriate 
                readiness standards and metrics to measure and report 
                on the overall capability, capacity, utilization, and 
                readiness of digital engineering forces to develop and 
                deliver operational capabilities and employ modern 
                business practices.
            (2) Digital engineering.--For purposes of this section, 
        digital engineering is the discipline and set of skills 
        involved in the creation, processing, transmission, 
        integration, and storage of digital data.
    (c) Responsibility.--
            (1) In general.--The Under Secretary of Defense for 
        Personnel and Readiness shall be responsible for the 
        development and discharge of the policy set forth in subsection 
        (a), and shall carry out such responsibility through an officer 
        or employee of the Department of Defense assigned by the Under 
        Secretary for that purpose.
            (2) Designation.--The individual assigned pursuant to 
        paragraph (1) shall be known as the ``Chief Digital Engineering 
        Recruitment and Management Officer of the Department of 
        Defense'' (in this section referred to as the ``Officer'').
            (3) Duration of position.--The requirement for the Officer 
        under paragraph (1) shall expire on September 30, 2029.
    (d) Duties.--In developing and providing for the discharge of the 
policy set forth in subsection (a), the Officer shall, in close 
consultation with the Assistant Secretaries of the military department 
for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, do the following:
            (1) Develop for, and enhance within, the recruitment 
        programs of the Armed Force various core initiatives, programs, 
        activities, and mechanisms, tailored to the unique needs of 
        each Armed Force, to identify and recruit to the Armed Forces 
        individuals with demonstrated aptitude, interest, proficient 
        expertise, or a combination thereof in digital engineering 
        particularly, and in science, technology, engineering, and 
        mathematics (STEM) generally, including initiatives, programs, 
        activities, and mechanisms to target populations of individuals 
        not typically aware of opportunities in the Armed Forces for a 
        digital engineering career.
            (2) Establish one or more flexible career tracks and 
        identifiers for digital engineering and related digital 
        competencies tailored to the unique needs for each Armed Force, 
        including appropriate military occupational specialties (MOS) 
        and meaningful opportunities for career development, talent 
        management, and promotion within such career tracks.
            (3) Develop and maintain education, training, doctrine, 
        rotational opportunities, and professional development 
        activities to support members of the Armed Forces at each level 
        of each career track established pursuant to paragraph (2).
            (4) Coordinate and synchronize digital force management 
        activities throughout the Department of Defense, advise the 
        Secretary of Defense on all matters pertaining to the health 
        and readiness of digital forces, convene a Department-wide 
        executive steering group, and submit to Congress an annual 
        report on the readiness of digital forces and progress toward 
        achieving the policy set forth in subsection (a).
            (5) Create a Department-wide mechanism to track digital 
        expertise in the workforce, develop and maintain organizational 
        policies, strategies, and plans sufficient to build, maintain, 
        and refresh internal capacity at scale, and report to the 
        Secretary quarterly on the health and readiness of digital 
        forces.
            (6) Assist the military departments in designing, 
        developing, and executing programs and incentives to retain, 
        track, and oversee digital expertise among members of the Armed 
        Forces on active duty.
            (7) At the request of the Chief of Staff of an Armed Force, 
        or the head of another component or element of the Department, 
        undertake an executive search for key leadership positions in 
        digital engineering in such Armed Force, component, or element, 
        and develop and deploy agile hiring processes to fill such 
        positions.
            (8) Identify necessary changes in authorities, policies, 
        resources, or a combination thereof to further the policy set 
        forth in subsection (a), and submit to Congress a report on 
        such changes.
    (e) Implementation.--Commencing not later than January 1, 2022, 
each Assistant Secretary of a military department for Manpower and 
Reserve Affairs shall implement and maintain the policy set forth in 
subsection (a) for the Armed Forces under the jurisdiction of such 
Assistant Secretary through implementation and maintenance of the 
matters developed and established by the Officer pursuant to subsection 
(d).
                                 <all>
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