[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 114 (Wednesday, July 10, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S4395]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 2145. Mr. CORNYN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by 
him to the bill S. 4638, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 
2025 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military 
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, 
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for 
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

       At the appropriate place, insert the following:

     SEC. ___. DIGITAL ELECTRONICS SYSTEMS ENGINEERING.

       (a) In General.--Not later than 90 days after enactment of 
     this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall seek to enter into a 
     contract or other agreement with a federally funded research 
     and development center, a university-affiliated research 
     center, or a National Laboratory to conduct an assessment of 
     the implementation by the Department of Defense of digital 
     engineering and modeling for electronics systems.
       (b) Elements.--The assessment required under subsection (a) 
     shall include the following:
       (1) The results and lessons learned from the pilot projects 
     conducted by each of the military department as of the date 
     of the enactment of this Act, including any cost and schedule 
     impacts realized by incorporating digital electronic systems 
     engineering and digital twinning.
       (2) The resources and timelines required for the 
     development, execution, and sustainment of digital electronic 
     systems engineering to develop hardware accurate digital 
     twins of the electronic systems associated with each current 
     major defense acquisition program.
       (3) The resources and timelines required to expand the use 
     of digital electronic systems engineering to programs other 
     than the major defense acquisition programs.
       (4) The workforce development and education requirements to 
     support adoption of digital electronic systems engineering 
     and digital twinning.
       (5) Recommendations for how to programmatically implement 
     and manage such a digital electronics systems engineering and 
     digital twinning capability to ensure cost efficiency and 
     sufficient capacity to satisfy the digital electronic systems 
     engineering demands for each of the military departments.
       (c) Results.--
       (1) In general.--Following the completion of the assessment 
     under subsection (a), the federally funded research and 
     development center, university-affiliated research center, or 
     National Laboratory shall submit to the Secretary a report on 
     the results of the assessment.
       (2) Form.--The report submitted pursuant to paragraph (1) 
     shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may include a 
     classified annex.
       (d) Submittal to Congress.--Not later than 60 days after 
     the date the Secretary receives the report under subsection 
     (c), the Secretary shall submit to the congressional defense 
     committees an unaltered copy of the report along with any 
     comments the Secretary may have with respect to the report.
       (e) Definitions.--In this section:
       (1) The term ``major defense acquisition program'' has the 
     meaning given that term in section 4201 of title 10, United 
     States Code.
       (2) The term ``National Laboratory'' has the meaning given 
     that term in section 2 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (42 
     U.S.C. 15801).
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