[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4453 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






119th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 4453

   To require the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the 
 Interior to ensure that the information technology and cybersecurity 
 and information security systems of the Department of Agriculture and 
    the Department of the Interior are interoperable, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 30, 2026

  Mr. Schiff (for himself and Mr. Ricketts) introduced the following 
      bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                  Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To require the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the 
 Interior to ensure that the information technology and cybersecurity 
 and information security systems of the Department of Agriculture and 
    the Department of the Interior are interoperable, and for other 
                               purposes.

    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 ``USDA-DOI Linking Information 
Networks for Knowledge-sharing Act'' or the ``LINK Act''.

SEC. 2. INTEROPERABILITY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND CYBERSECURITY 
              AND INFORMATION SECURITY SYSTEMS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF 
              AGRICULTURE AND THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR.

    (a) Definition of Secretary.--In this section, the term 
``Secretary'' means the Secretary of Agriculture.
    (b) Coordination Required.--
            (1) In general.--The Secretary and the Secretary of the 
        Interior shall coordinate with each other to ensure that the 
        information technology and cybersecurity and information 
        security systems of the Department of Agriculture and the 
        Department of the Interior, respectively, are interoperable to 
        allow for the sharing between the Secretary and the Secretary 
        of the Interior of information with respect to covered 
        activities of the Department of Agriculture and the Department 
        of the Interior, respectively, described in paragraph (2), 
        excluding any Tribal proprietary data, sensitive cave location 
        data, or other sensitive or proprietary information, as 
        designated by law (including regulations).
            (2) Description of covered activities.--The covered 
        activities referred to in paragraph (1) are--
                    (A) Federal land management activities, with an 
                emphasis on activities that would leverage existing 
                integration efforts and capabilities, such as wildfire 
                operations;
                    (B) disaster and emergency preparedness and 
                response activities; and
                    (C) procurement, aviation management, personnel and 
                workforce management, and other business system 
                activities relating to the conduct of the activities 
                described in subparagraphs (A) and (B).
            (3) Applicable law.--In carrying out paragraph (1), the 
        Secretary and the Secretary of the Interior shall comply with 
        applicable Federal information technology system laws, 
        including subtitle III of title 40 and chapter 35 of title 44, 
        United States Code.
            (4) Consultation; tribal data sovereignty.--In carrying out 
        paragraph (1), the Secretary and the Secretary of the Interior 
        shall--
                    (A) consult with applicable Indian Tribes; and
                    (B) provide appropriate protections for Tribal data 
                sovereignty.
    (c) Joint Interoperability Implementation Plan.--
            (1) Development.--As soon as practicable after the date of 
        enactment of this Act and in consultation with firefighters, 
        the Secretary and the Secretary of the Interior shall jointly 
        develop an interoperability implementation plan for the 
        Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior to 
        enable the sharing between the Secretary and the Secretary of 
        the Interior of the information described in subsection (b)(1).
            (2) Inclusion.--The interoperability implementation plan 
        developed under paragraph (1) shall include a plan for the 
        phased retirement of siloed legacy information technology and 
        cybersecurity and information security systems of the 
        Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior 
        that ensures that the retirement does not result in a 
        degradation of operational capacity or mission safety.
            (3) Implementation.--Not later than 1 year after the date 
        of enactment of this Act, the Secretary and the Secretary of 
        the Interior shall implement the interoperability 
        implementation plan developed under paragraph (1).
    (d) Updates to the Information Technology and Security Systems of 
the Department of Agriculture.--As soon as practicable after the date 
of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall update the information 
technology and cybersecurity and information security systems of the 
Department of Agriculture as necessary to enable the sharing between 
the Secretary and the Secretary of the Interior of the information 
described in subsection (b)(1), in accordance with the interoperability 
implementation plan developed under subsection (c).
                                 <all>