Title: Ensuring American Leadership over International Standards Act of 2020
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
Ensuring American Leadership over International Standards Act of 2020
This bill requires the National Institute of Standards and Technology to contract with a nongovernmental entity to conduct a study on (1) the activities of China's government and China's industrial entities within international standards bodies, and (2) how such actions affect the development and setting of international standards for emerging technologies.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4901 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 4901

  To require the Director of the National Institute of Standards and 
  Technology to commission a study on the effect of the activities of 
 China on standards for emerging technologies, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           November 16, 2020

Ms. Cortez Masto (for herself and Mr. Portman) introduced the following 
  bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign 
                               Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To require the Director of the National Institute of Standards and 
  Technology to commission a study on the effect of the activities of 
 China on standards for emerging technologies, 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 ``Ensuring American Leadership over 
International Standards Act of 2020''.

SEC. 2. STUDY ON CHINESE POLICIES AND INFLUENCE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
              INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS FOR EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Director of the National Institute of 
Standards and Technology shall enter into an agreement with an 
appropriate nongovernmental entity with relevant expertise, as 
determined by the Director, to conduct a study and make recommendations 
with respect to the effect of the policies of the People's Republic of 
China and coordination among industrial entities within the People's 
Republic of China on international bodies engaged in developing and 
setting international standards for emerging technologies. The study 
may include--
            (1) an assessment of how the role of the People's Republic 
        of China in international standards setting organizations has 
        grown over the previous 10 years, including in leadership roles 
        in standards-drafting technical committees, and the quality or 
        value of that participation;
            (2) an assessment of the impact of the standardization 
        strategy of the People's Republic of China, as identified in 
        the ``Chinese Standard 2035'' on international bodies engaged 
        in developing and setting standards for select emerging 
        technologies, such as advanced communication technologies or 
        cloud computing and cloud services;
            (3) an examination of whether international standards for 
        select emerging technologies are being designed to promote 
        interests of the People's Republic of China that are expressed 
        in the ``Made in China 2025'' plan to the exclusion of other 
        participants;
            (4) an examination of how the previous practices that the 
        People's Republic of China has utilized while participating in 
        international standards setting organizations may foretell how 
        the People's Republic of China will engage in international 
        standardization activities of critical technologies like 
        artificial intelligence and quantum information science, and 
        what may be the consequences;
            (5) an examination of the current role of partners and 
        allies of the United States in the international standards 
        setting process for emerging technologies;
            (6) recommendations on how the United States can take 
        steps--
                    (A) to mitigate influence of the People's Republic 
                of China;
                    (B) to bolster United States public and private 
                sector participation in international standards-setting 
                bodies; and
                    (C) to cooperate with allies and partners of the 
                United States to counter influence of the People's 
                Republic of China in international standards-setting 
                bodies; and
            (7) any other areas the Director, in consultation with the 
        entity selected to conduct the study, believes is important to 
        address.
    (b) Report to Congress.--The agreement entered into under 
subsection (a) shall require the entity conducting the study to, not 
later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act--
            (1) submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
        Transportation and the Committee on Homeland Security and 
        Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on 
        Science, Space, and Technology and the Committee on Homeland 
        Security of the House of Representatives a report containing 
        the findings and recommendations of the review conducted under 
        subsection (a); and
            (2) make a copy of such report available on a publicly 
        accessible website.
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