Back in February Rep Fong (R,CA) introduced HR 1223, the Accelerating Networking, Cyberinfrastructure, and Hardware for Oceanic Research (ANCHOR) Act. The bill would require the National Science Foundation (NSF) to submit a plan to improve the cybersecurity and telecommunications of the Academic Research Fleet. No new funding is authorized by the legislation.
The bill is similar to HR 7630, the Accelerating Networking, Cyberinfrastructure, and Hardware for Oceanic Research (ANCHOR) Act, that was introduced by Rep Garcia (R,CA) in March, 2024. The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee held a markup hearing on March 20th, 2024 and ordered the bill reported favorably by a vote of 38 to 0. The Committee Report was published on May 23rd, 2024. The bill was taken up by the full House on September 23rd, 2024 under the suspension of the rules process and passed by a voice vote. No action was taken in the Senate on this bill, nor on a similar bill (S 3943, the ANCHOR Act) introduced by Sen Padilla (D,CA) in March of 2024. Padilla has introduced a similar bill (S 318) this session.
Moving Forward
Fong and all three of his cosponsors {Rep Stevens (D,MI),
Rep Obernolte (D,CA), and Rep McBride (D,DE)} are members of the House Science,
Space, and Technology Committee to which this bill was assigned for
consideration. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see this
bill considered in Committee. While last session, the earlier bill moved through
the Committee and the floor of the House with no significant opposition, the
focus of the 119th Congress is somewhat different than that of the
118th. I suspect that if HR 1223 were considered it would still
receive strong bipartisan support, the question remains whether the leadership
would remain as supportive in the new legislative environment.
For more information about the provisions of this bill, see
my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-1223-introduced
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