S 1398 Introduced – Smart Technologies

Last month Sen. Cantwell (D,WA) introduced S 1398, the Smart Cities and Communities Act of 2019. The bill is designed to “promote smart technologies and systems to improve community livability, services, communication, safety, mobility, energy productivity, and resilience” {§2}. It is very similar to HR 2636 that was introduced the same day.

Differences

There are two differences between these two bills. One is inconsequential; substituting ‘market place’ for ‘marketplace’ in §401(a)(3). The other is much more substantial; S 1398 removes §205, Technical assistance, voucher pilot program, and technologist in residence pilot program. Sharp eyed readers will recall that this was added to this session’s version of the House bill.

All of the other changes that were made to HR 2636 were carried over into this bill.

Moving Forward

Cantwell is the Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Technology Committee, the Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that it is very likely that this bill will be considered by the Committee.

As I noted with the House bill, there is nothing in this bill that should drive any serious ideological opposition to the bill. As with most bills that include new program authorization language, money will be the biggest problem for this program moving forward and Cantwell removed one of the two funding authorizations when she deleted §205.