[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5353 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 5353

  To establish a policy to promote and maintain digital and software 
  development expertise in the workforce of the Department of Defense.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            December 6, 2019

  Ms. Houlahan (for herself and Mr. Meadows) introduced the following 
      bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To establish a policy to promote and maintain digital and software 
  development expertise in the workforce of the Department of Defense.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Armed Forces Digital Advantage 
Act''.

SEC. 2. POLICY ON THE TALENT MANAGEMENT OF DIGITAL EXPERTISE AND 
              SOFTWARE PROFESSIONALS.

    (a) Policy.--
            (1) In general.--It shall be a policy of the Department of 
        Defense to promote and maintain digital expertise and software 
        development as core competencies of civilian and military 
        workforces of the Department, and as a capability to support 
        the National Defense Strategy, which policy shall be achieved 
        by--
                    (A) the recruitment, development, and 
                incentivization of retention in and to the civilian and 
                military workforce of the Department of individuals 
                with aptitude, experience, proficient expertise, or a 
                combination thereof in digital expertise and software 
                development;
                    (B) at the discretion of the Secretaries of the 
                military departments, the development and maintenance 
                of civilian and military career tracks related to 
                digital expertise, and related digital competencies for 
                members of the Armed Forces, including the development 
                and maintenance of training, education, talent 
                management, incentives, and promotion policies in 
                support of members at all levels of such career tracks; 
                and
                    (C) the development and application of appropriate 
                readiness standards and metrics to measure and report 
                on the overall capability, capacity, utilization, and 
                readiness of digital engineering professionals to 
                develop and deliver operational capabilities and employ 
                modern business practices.
            (2) Definitions.--For purposes of this section, ``digital 
        engineering'' is the discipline and set of skills involved in 
        the creation, processing, transmission, integration, and 
        storage of digital data (including but not limited to data 
        science, machine learning, software engineering, software 
        product management, and artificial intelligence product 
        management).
    (b) Responsibility.--
            (1) Appointment of officer.--Not later than 270 days after 
        the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense 
        shall appoint a civilian official responsible for the 
        development and implementation of the policy set forth in 
        subsection (a). The official shall be known as the ``Chief 
        Digital Engineering Recruitment and Management Officer of the 
        Department of Defense'' (in this section referred to as the 
        ``Officer'').
            (2) Expiration of appointment.--The appointment of the 
        Officer under paragraph (1) shall expire on September 30, 2029.
    (c) Duties.--In developing and providing for the discharge of the 
policy set forth in subsection (a), the Officer shall work with the 
Assistant Secretaries of the military departments for Manpower and 
Reserve Affairs to carry out the following:
            (1) Develop for, and enhance within, the recruitment 
        programs of each Armed Force various core initiatives, 
        programs, activities, and mechanisms, tailored to the unique 
        needs of each Armed Force, to identify and recruit civilian 
        employees and members of the Armed Forces with demonstrated 
        aptitude, interest, and proficiency in digital engineering, and 
        in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) 
        generally, including initiatives, programs, activities, and 
        mechanisms to target populations of individuals not typically 
        aware of opportunities in the Department of Defense for a 
        digital engineering career.
            (2) Identify and share with the military departments best 
        practices around the development of flexible career tracks and 
        identifiers for digital engineering and related digital 
        competencies and meaningful opportunities for career 
        development, talent management, and promotion within such 
        career tracks.
            (3) Develop and maintain education, training, doctrine, 
        rotational opportunities, and professional development 
        activities to support the civilian and military digital 
        engineering workforce.
            (4) Coordinate and synchronize digital force management 
        activities throughout the Department of Defense, advise the 
        Secretary of Defense on all matters pertaining to the health 
        and readiness of digital forces, convene a Department-wide 
        executive steering group, and submit to Congress an annual 
        report on the readiness of digital forces and progress toward 
        achieving the policy set forth in subsection (a).
            (5) Create a Department-wide mechanism to track digital 
        expertise in the workforce, develop and maintain organizational 
        policies, strategies, and plans sufficient to build, maintain, 
        and refresh internal capacity at scale, and report to the 
        Secretary quarterly on the health and readiness the digital 
        engineering workforce.
            (6) Assist the military departments in designing, 
        developing, and executing programs and incentives to retain, 
        track, and oversee digital expertise among civilian employees 
        of the Department and members of the Armed Forces on active 
        duty.
            (7) At the request of the Chief of Staff of an Armed Force, 
        or the head of another component or element of the Department, 
        undertake an executive search for key leadership positions in 
        digital engineering in such Armed Force, component, or element, 
        and develop and deploy agile hiring processes to fill such 
        positions.
            (8) Identify necessary changes in authorities, policies, 
        resources, or a combination thereof to further the policy set 
        forth in subsection (a), and submit to Congress a report on 
        such changes.
    (d) Implementation Plan.--Not later than May 1, 2020, the Secretary 
of Defense shall submit to the Committees on Armed Services of the 
House of Representatives and the Senate a plan to carry out the 
requirements of this section. The plan shall include the following:
            (1) An assessment of progress of the Secretary in 
        recruiting an individual to serve as the Officer required to be 
        appointed under subsection (b).
            (2) A timeline for implementation of the requirements of 
        this section, including input from each military department on 
        its unique timeline.
            (3) Recommendations for any legislative or administrative 
        action required to meet the requirements of this section.
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