Senate Commerce Sets Vote on FCC IG Nominee, Spectrum IT Modernization Act
The Senate Commerce Committee plans a Wednesday vote on confirming FCC Inspector General nominee Chase Johnson, the Spectrum IT Modernization Act (S-3717) and four other tech and cybersecurity measures. Johnson had a March confirmation hearing (see 2003110054). S-3717 would require…
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NTIA to develop a plan for modernizing its IT systems, including “ways to improve the management of covered agencies’ use of Federal spectrum through that infrastructure” and “a time-based automated mechanism” to “share Federal spectrum between covered agencies to collaboratively and dynamically increase access to Federal spectrum.” The bill would also require a GAO study. Senate Commerce will mark up the Identifying Outputs of Generative Adversarial Networks Act (S-2904), which would require the National Science Foundation to support research on deepfakes, other manipulated content and generative adversarial networks that create them. The bill would also direct NSF and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to produce a report on the feasibility of using public-private partnerships to detect deepfakes. The committee will consider the Advanced Technological Manufacturing Act (S-3704), which would expand the number of colleges and universities eligible to compete for NSF grants. Senate Commerce will vote on the Cybersecurity Competitions to Yield Better Efforts to Research the Latest Exceptionally Advanced Problems (Cyber Leap) Act (S-3712), to create a National Cybersecurity Guard Challenges program to “achieve high-priority breakthroughs in cybersecurity by 2028,” including to improve the resiliency of federal networks and systems. The committee will also mark up the Critical Infrastructure Employee Protection Act (S-3728), which would require the Transportation Department to provide for priority testing of “critical infrastructure workers” for COVID-19 and coordinate with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for “priority access” to personal protective equipment. Senate Commerce will also vote on whether to advance the confirmations of Transportation Department Deputy Assistant Secretary-Research and Technology Diana Furchtgott-Roth and Finch Fulton as assistant secretaries of transportation, and Neil Jacobs as NOAA administrator. The executive session will begin at 10 a.m. in G50 Dirksen, the committee said.