United States Technology Procurement Program

(a) Establishment There is authorized to be established in the Department of State the United States Cyber and Digital Technology Procurement Program (referred to in this title as the Program), which may support Pax Silica, the American AI Exports Program, and other related initiatives to achieve the purposes set forth in subsection (b). To the maximum extent practicable, the Program should seek to serve as a demand-driven mechanism in response to cyber and digital technology needs. (b) Purposes The purposes of the Program should include the following: (1) To streamline foreign government partner procurement of trusted cyber and digital technologies, including commercial off-the-shelf technologies, consistent with United States export control laws and cybersecurity standards. (2) To establish long-term cyber and digital technology procurement pipelines with United States providers, including those that continue after the termination of the Program. (3) To identify the appropriate United States Government financing mechanisms to address challenges associated with affordability. (4) To provide a comprehensive package to participating governments that eases the navigation of cyber and digital technology procurement requirements, address technical and system complexity, reflects absorptive capacity, and is compatible with participating government-specific logistical and export controls, including by— (A) designing and implementing logistics, procurement, deployment, and technical knowledge-transfer plans that enable the participating government to modernize and secure systems; (B) promoting clear guidelines for United States and trusted foreign supplier entry and eligibility; (C) conducting assessments related to the participating government’s workforce or technological needs, including any gaps in absorptive capacity, including— (i) feasibility studies to identify, design, and implement the deployment of cyber and digital technology solutions; and (ii) sustainability assessments to determine the participating government’s ability to procure and invest in trusted cyber and digital technologies, including the ability to sustain such investments in the long-term; (D) providing capacity building to ensure that the participating government obtains the relevant skills for requirements identification and assessment, integration of United States technologies into existing operating environments, research and procurement, logistics, deployment, and configuration to ensure a long-term arrangement with suppliers that are headquartered in, or the ultimate parent company of which is headquartered in, the United States; and (E) assisting the participating government in developing a long-term strategy to procure and budget for trusted cyber and digital technology procurements, including beyond the end of the Program’s lifecycle. (5) To assess the risks and tradeoffs of participating governments adopting cyber and digital technologies from foreign countries of concern and prioritize participating governments for outreach efforts based on that risk assessment. (c) Covered cyber and digital technologies In implementing the Program, the Secretary of State should, in coordination with the participating government, determine which cyber and digital technologies, as well as any other cyber and digital technologies designated by the Secretary of State, to prioritize, including the following: (1) Software and its associated subscriptions and licensing, including— (A) operating systems; (B) enterprise management software; (C) cloud-based storage solutions and compute access; (D) industrial control and automation software, including supervisory control and data acquisition, distributed control systems, and programmable logic controller programming environments; (E) digital twin, simulation, and modeling software; and (F) cloud and edge orchestration platforms for robotic and operational technology device management. (2) Hardware, including— (A) processors; (B) human-machine interfaces and operator consoles; (C) networking equipment, including switches, routers, and gateways; (D) industrial networking equipment; (E) biotechnology equipment, including genomic sequencers and related hardware; and (F) other related technologies. (3) Cybersecurity products, including— (A) firewalls; (B) intrusion detection and prevention systems; (C) Security Information and Event Management systems; (D) threat intelligence and monitoring systems; (E) endpoint detection systems; (F) security operations centers; and (G) secure authentication systems. (4) Telecommunications equipment, including— (A) subsea fiber-optic cable and associated equipment; (B) cellular equipment, including open radio access network equipment; and (C) satellite-enabling infrastructure. (5) Equipment and related products to enable the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, including— (A) advanced-node integrated circuits, including advanced logic and memory integrated circuits, and products containing such circuits; (B) semiconductor manufacturing equipment and related subcomponents; (C) models, including both closed- and open-weight models; (D) AI model licenses; (E) edge AI capabilities, including next-generation smartphone technology and relevant mobile operating systems; and (F) AI model applications. (d) Annual review of covered cyber and digital technologies The Secretary of State, in coordination with the Secretary of Commerce and other agencies as appropriate, is authorized to conduct assessments on at least an annual basis to identify the inclusion or removal of technologies under subsection (c) based on the national security risk to the United States of a foreign country of concern gaining significant market share of such technology within an economy that is a foreign government partner. (e) Risk mitigation requirements Before approving a partnership under the Program, the Secretary of State should— (1) conduct an assessment of technology misuse and diversion risks, including— (A) the participating government’s export control enforcement capacity; (B) the history of technology transfer to foreign countries of concern, including permitting remote access to technology; and (C) investments by foreign countries of concern in critical sectors within the country of the foreign government partner; (2) establish monitoring and mitigation requirements proportional to the risk assessed under paragraph (1); (3) include end-use monitoring provisions in all Program arrangements; and (4) coordinate with the intelligence community and the Department of Defense regarding counterintelligence and national security risks. (f) Participating government contribution For each partnership with a participating government under the Program, the Secretary of State should, to the maximum extent practicable, seek appropriate cost-sharing arrangements with the participating government to facilitate the government’s long-term buy-in and sustained procurements of trusted cyber and digital technologies. (g) Additional interagency coordination In implementing the Program, to address challenges associated with affordability, financing, technical evaluations, procurement requirements, and long-term capacity building, the Secretary of State should, on a case-by-case basis, coordinate, as appropriate, with the heads of the relevant Federal departments and agencies, including of the Department of Commerce, the Department of Homeland Security, the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the United States International Development Finance Cooperation, and the United States Trade and Development Agency. (h) Use of funds Funds made available to carry out the Program are authorized to be used— (1) to provide assistance or financing— (A) to participating government civilian government agencies; or (B) to law enforcement or military agencies, only if such entities are the owners and operators of the participating government’s civilian critical infrastructure; and (2) to develop blended finance mechanisms, co-developed with the foreign government partner that partners with the private sector to advance the objections outlined in subsection (b). (i) Partner disqualification (1) Prohibition on the use of funds No funds are authorized to be made available under this title to— (A) a foreign country of concern; or (B) any country, entity, or person— (i) upon which sanctions are imposed by the President; (ii) that is an entity or person on the Entity List maintained by the Bureau of Industry and Security of the Department of Commerce and set forth in Supplement No. 4 to part 744 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations; (iii) that is an entity on the Military End-User List (Supplement No. 7 to part 744 of the Export Administration Regulations); (iv) any person listed pursuant to section 1260H of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (10 U.S.C. 113 note); (v) any person listed on the Federal Communication Commission’s Covered List pursuant to the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019 (47 U.S.C. 1601); or (vi) any person listed on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List pursuant to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (Public Law 117–78). (2) Vetting The Secretary of State should vet participating governments to determine whether there is credible information that such government— (A) has committed serious human rights abuses or engaged in corruption, as defined in section 1 of Executive Order 13818 (50 U.S.C. 1701 note; relating to blocking the property of persons involved in serious human rights abuse or corruption), or is determined to be ineligible for assistance pursuant to section 620M of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2378d); and (B) uses or is likely to use technologies outlined in subsection (c) and supported by this title to engage in— (i) violations of human rights; (ii) targeted or bulk surveillance in violation of rule of law principles or fundamental freedoms; (iii) the monitoring of journalists, activists, human rights defenders, opposition parties, or political dissidents; (iv) internet shutdowns or to limit or control elections or protests; (v) political censorship or the targeting and suppression of political speech or political opponents; (vi) denial of access to technology or services based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or other discriminatory factors; and (vii) acts of transnational repression. (3) Disqualification Any participating government determined by the Secretary of State to engage in the activities described in paragraph (2) shall be ineligible for support or assistance under this title. (j) Regional technology officers The Secretary of State should, to the maximum extent practicable, leverage the Department of State’s Regional Technology Officer Program, pursuant to section 9508 of the Department of State Authorization Act of 2022 (22 U.S.C. 10305), to assist United States diplomatic and consular posts to identify governments to participate in the Program. (k) Foreign commercial officers As appropriate, the Secretary of State should, in coordination with the Secretary of Commerce, seek to leverage the Foreign Commercial Officer Program to assist United States diplomatic and consular posts to identify governments to participate in the Program. (l) Congressional notification requirement Not later than 15 days before amounts from the Cyberspace, Digital Connectivity, and Related Technologies Fund established pursuant to section 592 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2349cc–1) are obligated for purposes of carrying out this section, the Secretary of State shall submit notification of such obligation to— (1) the Committee on Foreign Relations in the Senate; (2) the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; (3) the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the House of Representatives; and (4) the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives. (m) Report Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act and annually thereafter for 2 years, the Secretary of State, in coordination with the Secretary of Commerce, shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report that includes— (1) a complete list of foreign government partners in the Program; (2) progress and results achieved in the previous calendar year; (3) the overall amount of purchases or investments each foreign government partner has made since initial participation in the Program; (4) specific cyber and digital technologies acquired by foreign government partners, including— (A) the name of the provider company or companies; (B) the total value of the procurements; (C) description of the capability; and (D) how the procured capability addresses the original request submitted by the government, if applicable; (5) next steps for each participating government in its respective Program pipeline; (6) any challenges for a government’s participation in the Program, including how those challenges are being addressed; and (7) how risks related to technology transfer, if applicable, are being mitigated. (n) Sunset The Program shall terminate on the date that is 7 years after the date of the enactment of this Act.