Title: Ensuring American Leadership over International Standards Act of 2019
Policy area: Science, Technology, Communications

Summary:
Ensuring American Leadership over International Standards Act of 2019
This bill directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology to enter into an agreement with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to conduct a study on the impact of Chinese government policies and standards development on international bodies engaged in developing and setting international standards for emerging technologies.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7139 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7139

   To direct the Director of the National Institute of Standards and 
  Technology to commission a study on the impact of the activities of 
             China on standards for emerging technologies.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              June 8, 2020

  Mr. Schweikert (for himself and Mr. Bera) introduced the following 
   bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, Space, and 
                               Technology

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To direct the Director of the National Institute of Standards and 
  Technology to commission a study on the impact of the activities of 
             China on standards for emerging technologies.

    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 2019''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Standards serve as the building blocks for product 
        development and help ensure functionality, interoperability, 
        and safety.
            (2) Global cooperation and coordination on standards for 
        emerging technologies will be critical for having a consistent 
        set of rules to enable market competition, preclude barriers to 
        trade, and allow innovation to flourish.
            (3) China's ``Standardization Reform Plan'' and ``Five-Year 
        Plan for Standardization'' highlight its high-level goals to 
        establish China as a ``standards power'' by 2020, participate 
        in at least half of all standards drafting and revision efforts 
        in recognized international standards setting organizations, 
        and to strengthen China's participation in the governance of 
        international standards setting organizations.
            (4) As emerging technologies develop for global deployment, 
        it is critical that the United States and its allies continue 
        to shape standards that underpin the technologies themselves, 
        and the future international governance of these technologies.
            (5) United States position on standardization in emerging 
        technologies will be critical to United States economic 
        competitiveness.
            (6) NIST is in a unique position to strengthen United 
        States leadership in standards development, particularly for 
        emerging technologies, to ensure continuing United States 
        economic competitiveness and national security.

SEC. 3. EXTERNAL STUDY.

    (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 the 
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to conduct a 
study, and make recommendations with respect to the impact of Chinese 
government policies and standards development on international bodies 
engaged in developing and setting international standards for emerging 
technologies. The study may include--
            (1) an assessment of how China's role 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 China's standardization 
        strategy, 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 
        Chinese government interests that are expressed in the ``Made 
        in China 2025'' plan to the exclusion of other participants;
            (4) an examination of how the previous practices China has 
        utilized while participating in international standards setting 
        organizations may foretell how China will engage in 
        international standardization activities of critical 
        technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum 
        information science, and what may be the consequences;
            (5) recommendations on how the United States can take steps 
        to mitigate Chinese influence in international standards-
        setting bodies and identify voting strategies with respect to 
        international consensus standards for advanced wireless 
        communications technologies and other critical technologies; 
        and
            (6) any other areas the Academies believe is important to 
        address.
    (b) Report to Congress.--The agreement entered into under 
subsection (a) shall require the National Academies of Sciences, 
Engineering, and Medicine to, not later than 2 years after the date of 
the enactment of this Act--
            (1) submit to the Committee on Science, Space, and 
        Technology of the House of Representatives and the Committee on 
        Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate 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.
    (c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to the Director to carry out this section $1,000,000 for 
fiscal year 2020.
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