Cloud Hosting

[co-author: Christina Barone]

On April 9, 2021, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) submitted President Bidens discretionary funding request (the Request) to Congress for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022. The Request lays out the Presidents discretionary funding recommendations across a wide range of policy areas, including a strategy for investing in emerging technology areas, maintaining economic competitiveness and national security and positioning the U.S. to out-compete China. The Request is high-level and did not include proposed legislative text.

The Presidents Request recommends:

On April 21, 2021, a group of bipartisan lawmakers reintroduced the Endless Frontier Act (H.R.2731 and S.1260) to establish a new Directorate for Technology (the Directorate) at the NSF, a regional technology hub program and require a strategy and report on economic security, research, innovation, manufacturing and job creation. The bill would authorize $100 billion over five years for the Directorate to strengthen U.S. leadership in critical technology areas through innovation, research, commercialization and education and ensure that the U.S. maintains its competitive edge in technologies of the future.

The legislation identifies ten initial technology domains for the new NSF Directorate to fund research, including AI and machine learning, semiconductors, quantum computing, advanced communications technology, cybersecurity and synthetic biology.

Additionally, the Directorate is authorized to:

The Endless Frontier Act also establishes a novel Supply Chain Resiliency and Crisis Response Program at the Department of Commerce. The new program would monitor supply chain vulnerabilities and provide investments to diversify supply chains for products critical to national security. Lastly, the bill proposes a $2.4 billion investment to enhance and expand the Manufacturing USA network.

On April 21, 2021, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chair of the House Financial Services Committee, renewed the Committees AI Task Force. The Task Force was created during the 116th Congress to ensure the responsible use of emerging and predictive technologies in the financial sector. Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL) will continue leading the Task Forces work to examine whether emerging technologies in the financial services and housing industries serve the needs of consumers, investors, small businesses and the public.

Congress and the Biden-Harris administration continue to take action to ensure the U.S. maintains its global leadership in technologies of the future, including AI. Additional investments and a new approach to accelerate U.S. science and technology developments are beginning to materialize in light of growing concerns that other countries are ready to challenge Americas position on the innovation stage. The Akin Gump cross-practice AI team continues to monitor forthcoming congressional, administrative and private-stakeholder initiatives related to AI.

More:
Administration and Congressional Update on Artificial Intelligence in the U.S. - JD Supra