Secure Research Data Network Act
Bill: S.4200 | Sponsor: Sen. Wyden, Ron (D-OR)
Policy area: Science, Technology, Communications

Summary:
Secure Research Data Network Act
This bill establishes a Secure Research Data Network (SRDN) pilot program in the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The NSF shall direct the SRDN to carry out specified responsibilities, including
The NSF shall direct the SRDN to develop a plan for and operate a data quality service team who will help reporting entities evaluate their data and prepare it for use with the SRDN platform to achieve approved project goals.
The NSF shall establish a SRDN Advisory Board.
The Government Accountability Office shall conduct an evaluation of the SRDN pilot program.

To establish a Secure Research Data Network.

    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 ``Secure Research Data Network Act''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Section 3561 of title 44 definitions.--The terms 
        ``evidence'', ``identifiable form'', ``statistical 
        activities'', and ``statistical purpose'' have the meanings 
        given the terms in section 3561 of title 44, United States 
        Code.
            (2) Analyst.--The term ``analyst'' means a person either 
        employed by, or working on behalf of, a Federal or State agency 
        in empirical programmatic or data analysis.
            (3) Data asset.--The term ``data asset'' has the meaning 
        given the term in section 3502 of title 44, United States Code.
            (4) Data steward.--The term ``data steward'' means an 
        individual employed by a Federal or State agency who is 
        familiar with the agency's data, and has a statutory 
        responsibility to protect the confidentiality of such data and 
        ensure its integrity and quality.
            (5) Director.--Except as otherwise provided, the term 
        ``Director'' means the Director of the National Science 
        Foundation.
            (6) Reporting entity.--The term ``reporting entity'' means 
        a Federal or State agency with data relevant to governmentwide 
        evidence-building activities.
            (7) State.--The term ``State'' has the meaning given the 
        term in section 502 of the National Science Foundation 
        Authorization Act of 2010 (42 U.S.C. 1862p note), except that 
        the definition shall be applied by striking ``, or any other 
        territory or possession of the United States''.

SEC. 3. SECURE RESEARCH DATA NETWORK.

    (a) Establishment.--
            (1) In general.--The Director, in consultation with the 
        Statistical Official of the National Science Foundation, the 
        Chief Statistician of the United States, and the Director of 
        the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Office, shall, 
        subject to the availability of appropriations, enter into an 
        agreement for the establishment of the ``Secure Research Data 
        Network'' or ``SRDN'', which shall be operated as a pilot 
        program.
            (2) Term of pilot program.--The pilot program operated 
        under paragraph (1) shall run for 3 years, with the possibility 
        of not more than two 1-year extensions, upon consideration of 
        the Director, in consultation with the SRDN Advisory Board.
            (3) Additional employees.--The Director may hire additional 
        employees as necessary to support the operation of the SRDN, 
        including full-time equivalent Federal employees.
            (4) Avoid duplication.--The Director shall coordinate with 
        the Chief Statistician of the United States to identify 
        potential areas of overlap between the SRDN and efforts carried 
        out at, or financially assisted by, the National Science 
        Foundation, such as the America's DataHub Consortium, on the 
        date of enactment of this Act. The Chief Statistician of the 
        United States shall seek to ensure that the activities of the 
        SRDN enhance and complement those efforts existing on the date 
        of enactment of this Act in order to avoid duplication and 
        maximize the use of Federal resources.
    (b) Responsibilities.--The Director shall direct the SRDN to carry 
out the following:
            (1) Support governmentwide evidence-building activities as 
        required under section 312 of title 5, United States Code, 
        including implementation of agency multiyear evidence-building 
        plans.
            (2) Develop, deploy, maintain, and operate a SRDN platform 
        for authorized analysts to calculate statistics on data for 
        evidence-building activity purposes using data assets made 
        available by reporting entities for approved projects.
            (3) Execute a number of approved projects on the SRDN 
        platform described in paragraph (2) and make the results 
        publicly available.
            (4) Ensure an appropriate number of approved projects will 
        re-examine and attempt to fully or partially replicate the 
        results of linked data studies in existence on the date of 
        enactment of this Act as proof of concept for the SRDN platform 
        described in paragraph (2).
            (5) Maintain, in consultation with the Chief Statistician 
        of the United States and other relevant Federal data strategy 
        stakeholders, a public SRDN website with up-to-date information 
        on all approved projects, including their results and 
        documentation of the evidence-building value of each project 
        for policymakers.
            (6) Consult with the National Artificial Intelligence 
        Research Resource Task Force established under section 5106 of 
        the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 (15 
        U.S.C. 9415) and consider how to integrate the Task Force's 
        recommendations and road map for expanding access to critical 
        artificial intelligence resources and educational tools into 
        the SRDN.
    (c) Privacy Requirements.--In developing the SRDN platform under 
subsection (b)(2), the SRDN--
            (1) shall ensure the SRDN platform facilitates statistical 
        activities for evidence-building activity purposes while 
        reducing the privacy and security risks by developing, 
        procuring, or adapting technology that, at a minimum, uses the 
        latest cutting-edge technical protection measures that 
        reasonably ensure that--
                    (A) the SRDN platform permits only authorized 
                analysts to perform statistical queries necessary to 
                answer approved project questions using the data assets 
                made available by the reporting entities;
                    (B) no information about the data assets used in 
                the SRDN platform is revealed to any other party, 
                except as incorporated into the final result, which 
                shall be used exclusively for statistical evidence-
                building purposes and shall not be released in an 
                identifiable form;
                    (C) no individual entity's data or information is 
                revealed by the SRDN platform to any other party in an 
                identifiable form;
                    (D) the SRDN platform prohibits any other queries 
                by the SRDN or any other party through the SRDN 
                platform; and
                    (E) the SRDN platform minimizes the privacy risks 
                to individual entities whose data has been made 
                available by a reporting entity, including those that 
                could result from data breaches of any system operated 
                by the reporting entity; and
            (2) may--
                    (A) use secure multiparty computation technologies; 
                or
                    (B) utilize technology other than secure multiparty 
                computation technologies if the other technology--
                            (i) fully complies with subparagraphs (A) 
                        through (E) of paragraph (1); and
                            (ii) delivers greater or equivalent privacy 
                        and security than secure multiparty 
                        computation.
    (d) Software Requirements.--
            (1) In general.--The Director shall ensure the SRDN 
        develops, deploys, operates, and maintains the SRDN platform 
        described in subsection (b)(2), along with corresponding 
        Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), to be used by 
        reporting entities and authorized analysts who will interact 
        with the SRDN platform to conduct the approved projects. The 
        Director--
                    (A) shall direct the SRDN to consult, design, and 
                conduct usability testing of the SRDN platform with 
                relevant Federal and State agencies, Federal 
                coordinating councils, subject matter experts, 
                academia, and others with expertise in technology 
                development, maintenance, and governance, statistics, 
                privacy, and user-centered design, as the Director 
                determines appropriate;
                    (B) in consultation with the SRDN Advisory Board, 
                shall engage in an open public review and comment 
                process on the development of the SRDN platform and its 
                governance policies; and
                    (C) shall enter into an agreement for the 
                establishment of the SRDN only with entities based in 
                the United States or in its allied countries.
            (2) Public domain and open source software.--The Director 
        shall ensure the SRDN makes all software developed for the SRDN 
        platform described in subsection (b)(2) available as public 
        domain and open source software (as defined in section 
        1552.239-71 of title 48, Code of Federal Regulations, or a 
        successor regulation) both during development and after 
        completion, and endeavor to design the architecture to ensure 
        that appropriate components can be reused independently. The 
        SRDN shall publicly document the construction, operation, and 
        functionality of the software technologies it develops on the 
        SRDN public-facing website.
            (3) Provision of software.--The Director shall ensure the 
        SRDN provides software to reporting entities, at no cost, that 
        the reporting entities can use to connect their own systems to 
        the SRDN platform described in subsection (b)(2). A reporting 
        entity may use the public domain software the SRDN makes 
        available to build their own software that interfaces using the 
        publicly documented API, or use the services of another agency 
        or organization with greater or equivalent privacy and security 
        to help them connect their own systems to the SRDN.
    (e) Data Quality Service Team.--
            (1) In general.--The Director shall direct the SRDN to 
        develop a plan for and operate a data quality service team that 
        is composed of data governance, information systems, 
        statistics, cybersecurity, and disclosure avoidance experts, 
        who will, at no cost to the reporting entity, help reporting 
        entities evaluate their data and prepare it for use with the 
        SRDN platform described in subsection (b)(2) to achieve 
        approved project goals.
            (2) Agency assistance.--A reporting entity that is a 
        Federal agency, and a reporting entity that is a State agency 
        that chooses to receive assistance as described in paragraph 
        (1), shall work with the SRDN to develop a plan for preparing 
        its data for use with the SRDN platform described in subsection 
        (b)(2), including adopting all necessary standards. The SRDN 
        shall approve the cost estimates prepared by the reporting 
        entity prior to the reporting entity and the SRDN undertaking 
        work that is eligible for reimbursement, according to 
        guidelines established by the Director. The Director shall 
        approve the plans and enter into reimbursable agreements with 
        reporting entities for expenses included in the approved cost 
        plan. In addition, the reporting entity shall--
                    (A) make its employees responsible for the relevant 
                data available to work with and assist the data quality 
                service team for the extent of the project with 
                reimbursement from the National Science Foundation for 
                the employees' worked hours;
                    (B) adopt the recommendations of the data quality 
                service team necessary to prepare the reporting 
                entity's data for use with the SRDN platform; and
                    (C) notwithstanding subparagraphs (B), (C), and (D) 
                of subsection (c)(1), provide the data quality service 
                team with access to the relevant data.
            (3) Hardware and software support.--The Director shall 
        direct the SRDN to provide hardware and software support 
        technology the reporting entities need to stage and prepare 
        data for use with the SRDN platform described in subsection 
        (b)(2).
            (4) Training materials and tools.--The data quality service 
        team, in coordination with the Secure Research Data Network 
        training team described in subsection (f)(1), shall--
                    (A) produce training materials, documented runnable 
                code, and other tools to help reporting entities 
                prepare their data for use with the SRDN platform 
                described in subsection (b)(2); and
                    (B) publish such resources on the SRDN public 
                website.
            (5) Disclosure avoidance.--The data quality service team 
        shall assist reporting entities as they conduct a disclosure 
        avoidance review to ensure that project results are not 
        released in an identifiable form. No results shall be released 
        until a disclosure avoidance review is conducted.
    (f) Training.--
            (1) In general.--The Director shall direct the SRDN to 
        develop a plan for and operate a Secure Research Data Network 
        training team that is composed of data science, social science, 
        statistics, privacy, disclosure avoidance, and cybersecurity 
        experts, which will, at no cost to the reporting entity, help 
        reporting entities develop capacity to produce evidence using 
        the SRDN platform described in subsection (b)(2), explain how 
        the SRDN platform works and how it protects data assets, and 
        evaluate the value of the evidence for policymakers and the 
        public.
            (2) Training curricula.--The Director shall--
                    (A) develop, in consultation with relevant Federal 
                and State agencies, Federal and State coordinating 
                councils, subject matter experts, academia, and others 
                with expertise in user-centered design, privacy 
                preserving technologies, data science, and statistics 
                design, as the Director determines appropriate, 
                training curricula for agency staff and authorized 
                analysts and make it publicly available; and
                    (B) in consultation with the SRDN Advisory Board, 
                engage in an open public review and comment process on 
                the development of the curricula.
            (3) Curricula content.--The curricula developed under 
        paragraph (2) shall build upon Federal data strategy and Office 
        of Management and Budget evidence-building recommendations and 
        include training in the use of the SRDN platform described in 
        subsection (b)(2), preparation of data for use with the SRDN 
        platform, testing and evaluation of the usefulness of the 
        training materials and tools, and documentation of the evidence 
        value for policymakers and the public.
    (g) Project Proposal.--
            (1) In general.--The Director, in consultation with the 
        SRDN Advisory Board and the Chief Statistician of the United 
        States, shall develop criteria and guidelines for analysts to 
        become authorized analysts and for project proposals to be 
        submitted for consideration.
            (2) Facilitating proposals.--The Director shall facilitate 
        project proposals from research communities by soliciting 
        questions and connecting research communities with analysts 
        from the appropriate reporting agencies through methods such as 
        workshops, conferences, or idea labs.
            (3) Proposal requirements.--The project proposals shall be 
        submitted by authorized analysts and, at a minimum, include the 
        following:
                    (A) Documentation of the relevant data assets 
                necessitated by the project, including details of their 
                level of preparedness for analysis with the SRDN 
                platform under subsection (b)(2).
                    (B) Identification of data stewards from the 
                relevant reporting entities who will work with the data 
                quality team to prepare data assets for analysis with 
                the SRDN platform under subsection (b)(2).
                    (C) Attestation from the relevant reporting 
                entities and data stewards that they support both the 
                proposed project and the usage of their data assets for 
                the proposed project.
                    (D) Documentation of the evidence-building value 
                the project would provide to policymakers.
                    (E) Feedback and comments on the proposed project 
                collected from nonprofit organizations, Tribal 
                communities and governments, relevant State and local 
                governments, community leaders, and other members of 
                the public, as appropriate.
    (h) Advisory Board.--
            (1) In general.--The Director, in consultation with the 
        Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences of the 
        National Science Foundation, the Directorate for Computer and 
        Information Science and Engineering of the National Science 
        Foundation, and the Chief Statistician of the United States, 
        shall establish a SRDN Advisory Board. The SRDN Advisory Board 
        shall be responsible for receiving, evaluating, advising, and 
        prioritizing a diverse set of project proposals based on 
        National Science Foundation strategic priorities and 
        established evidence-building plans and policy-relevant 
        questions required of Federal agencies in accordance with 
        section 312 of title 5, United States Code, from multiple 
        different authorized analysts for the consideration of the 
        Director.
            (2) Members.--
                    (A) In general.--The SRDN Advisory Board shall 
                consist of 15 members from a broad range of specialties 
                and institutions, including individuals with expertise 
                in producing high-value evidence, data stewardship, 
                cybersecurity, privacy, data governance, State and 
                Federal program evaluation, State and Federal data 
                infrastructure, State and Federal statistics 
                infrastructure, and social science research.
                    (B) Federal employees and non-federal employees.--
                The SRDN Advisory Board shall consist of members who 
                are employed by a Federal agency and members who are 
                not employed by a Federal agency.
                    (C) Diversity.--The SRDN Advisory Board shall have 
                a diverse membership based on gender, race, ethnicity, 
                and geography. One-third of the members of the SRDN 
                Advisory Board shall consist of individuals located in 
                jurisdictions that participate in the program under 
                section 113 of the National Science Foundation 
                Authorization Act of 1988 (42 U.S.C. 1862g).
            (3) Duties.--The SRDN Advisory Board shall consider, at a 
        minimum, the following:
                    (A) The feasibility of the proposed project, 
                including preparedness of necessary data components, 
                formal support from relevant data stewards and 
                reporting entities, plans and resources to implement an 
                adequate data governance plan, and reporting entity 
                technological capabilities.
                    (B) How the proposed project supports established 
                evidence-building plans and answers policy-relevant 
                questions required of Federal agencies in accordance 
                with section 312 of title 5, United States Code, and to 
                what extent the project represents a diverse group of 
                data sources and statistical work in the Federal 
                Government or in Federal-State partnerships.
                    (C) Feedback and comments included in the project 
                proposal.
    (i) Reporting.--
            (1) In general.--Not later than 3 years after the date of 
        enactment of this Act, the Director, in consultation with the 
        SRDN Advisory Board, shall produce a final report, to be 
        published on the SRDN website and shared with relevant 
        committees of Congress, which includes--
                    (A) the technological considerations of the SRDN 
                platform described in subsection (b)(2);
                    (B) recommendations for future SRDN projects;
                    (C) a summary of all the SRDN projects undertaken, 
                including their results, details of the data sources 
                used, and analysis of their disparate impacts on 
                subgroups;
                    (D) a description of how project results are 
                relevant to Federal agency evidence-building plans and 
                policy-relevant questions, as required under section 
                312 of title 5, United States Code;
                    (E) lessons learned by the data quality service 
                team, operated pursuant to subsection (e)(1), from 
                working with reporting entity stakeholders to prepare 
                their data for the SRDN platform described in 
                subsection (b)(2);
                    (F) recommendations for a permanent program that 
                would be called the Secure Research Data Network, 
                including needs for additional capacity, functionality, 
                and funding related to providing a secure privacy 
                preserving statistical platform; and
                    (G) consideration of relevant recommendations from 
                the Office of Management and Budget Advisory Committee 
                on Data for Evidence-Building.
            (2) GAO evaluation.--
                    (A) In general.--Upon publication of the report 
                under paragraph (1), the Comptroller General of the 
                United States shall conduct an evaluation of the SRDN 
                pilot program, which shall include--
                            (i) a recommendation for a potential 
                        permanent SRDN program;
                            (ii) a technical review of the SRDN pilot 
                        program's ability to protect individual 
                        identity from disclosure and recommendations 
                        for how a future permanent SRDN program should 
                        be constructed in order to provide a secure 
                        privacy preserving statistical platform;
                            (iii) an analysis of the adequacy of 
                        allotted resources, issues with the 
                        solicitation of projects and public comment, 
                        and any issues faced in facilitating the 
                        collaboration of reporting entities involved in 
                        approved projects; and
                            (iv) a review of, and recommendations for, 
                        how a permanent SRDN program will comply with 
                        relevant privacy statutes.
    (j) Requirements.--The agreement entered into under subsection (a) 
shall--
            (1) be competitively awarded;
            (2) last not more than 5 years;
            (3) ensure any entity designated to operate the SRDN 
        shall--
                    (A) coordinate with the Statistical Official of the 
                National Science Foundation, as part of the Statistical 
                Official's role as an agent of the National Center for 
                Science and Engineering Statistics and a member of the 
                Interagency Council on Statistical Policy, in 
                accordance with section 314(b) of title 5, United 
                States Code, and section 3504(e)(8) of title 44, United 
                States Code; and
                    (B) comply with applicable requirements provided in 
                section 552a of title 5, United States Code (commonly 
                known as the ``Privacy Act of 1974'') and subchapter 
                III of chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code 
                (commonly known as the ``Confidential Information 
                Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2018''); 
                and
            (4) if practicable, establish the pilot program as a 
        Federally funded research and development center.
    (k) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this section $100,000,000.
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