Title: National Defense Accelerator Network Act of 2018
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security

Summary:
National Defense Accelerator Network Act of 2018
This bill directs the Department of Defense to carry out a pilot program establishing an innovation network to support the creation of startups that produce technologies with both military and civilian uses.


[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3044 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3044

  To establish the National Defense Accelerator Network pilot program.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 11, 2018

  Mr. Rounds introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
              referred to the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To establish the National Defense Accelerator Network pilot program.

    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 ``National Defense Accelerator Network 
Act of 2018''.

SEC. 2. NATIONAL DEFENSE ACCELERATOR NETWORK PILOT.

    (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) has spurred 
        investment from private venture capital into businesses and 
        academic institutions, which do not have a traditional 
        relationship with the Department of Defense, that focus on 
        national defense solutions. Since June 2016, seven startups 
        supported by Defense Innovation Unit Experimental have raised 
        close to $720,000,000 in subsequent rounds of private venture 
        capital funding.
            (2) An innovation ecosystem can be developed based on a hub 
        and spoke network closely aligned to public research 
        universities in partnership with the government and private 
        capital.
    (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) while Defense Innovation Unit Experimental has been 
        able to attract early stage private capital to dual-use start-
        ups, more needs to be done to re-establish a dual use 
        innovation ecosystem in the United States similar to what was 
        created in the 1950s and early 1960s in radar and 
        microelectronics technologies;
            (2) this older ecosystem eventually evolved into the 
        globally dominant commercial information technology industry 
        primarily based in Silicon Valley but was initially jump-
        started based on a partnership between the Government, leading 
        universities, and the private sector; and
            (3) new innovation networks should be developed and 
        incubated that would be comprised of businesses and academic 
        institutions, which do not have a traditional relationship with 
        the Department of Defense, to enable the Department to 
        stabilize and then hopefully begin to close the digital and 
        technological gap that is beginning to emerge in many key areas 
        with United States competitors.
    (c) Pilot Required.--
            (1) In general.--The Secretary of Defense shall conduct a 
        pilot program to assess innovation network capabilities.
            (2) Establishment of network.--In carrying out the pilot 
        program required by paragraph (1), the Secretary shall 
        establish a network of the dual-use startups produced under the 
        pilot program. Such network would be known as the ``National 
        Defense Accelerator Network''.
            (3) Initial test phase.--In carrying out the pilot program 
        required by paragraph (1), the Secretary may carry out an 
        initial test phase at one leading university that--
                    (A) has an established leadership team that is 
                intimately familiar with the workings of In-Q-Tel and 
                Defense Innovation Unit Experimental; and
                    (B) has established relationships with leading 
                venture capital firms and other sources of early stage 
                financial capital.
            (4) Producing dual-use startups.--The pilot program 
        required by paragraph (1) shall be a pilot program to assess 
        the ability to produce dual-use startups focused on priority 
        defense technology that attract seed and round A financing from 
        premier venture capital firms in the United States.
            (5) Scalability.--The Secretary shall ensure that the pilot 
        program conducted under paragraph (1) is designed to be 
        scalable and, if successful, enlarged to consist of at least 10 
        and not more than 20 leading regionally-based public research 
        universities.
    (d) Semiannual Reports.--Not less frequently than once every six 
months for the first two years of the pilot program conducted under 
subsection (c), the Secretary shall brief the congressional defense 
committees on the progress of the Secretary in carrying out the pilot 
program.
    (e) Funding.--Of the amounts appropriated or otherwise made 
available by this Act for the Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment 
program (IBAS), Defense Innovation Unit Experimental, the Rapid 
Innovation Fund (RIF), and for any purpose relating to strengthening 
and improving the defense industrial base, $5,000,000 shall be 
available to carry out the pilot program required by subsection (c).
    (f) Congressional Defense Committees Defined.--In this section, the 
term ``congressional defense committees'' has the meaning given such 
term in section 101 of title 10, United States Code.
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