[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 115 (Thursday, July 11, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S4912]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 2569. Mr. PADILLA 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 end of subtitle H of title X, add the following:

     SEC. 1095. SUPERCOMPUTING FOR SAFER CHEMICALS (SUPERSAFE) 
                   CONSORTIUM.

       (a) Establishment.--
       (1) In general.--The Administrator of the Environmental 
     Protection Agency (referred to in this section as the 
     ``Administrator''), in consultation with the heads of 
     relevant Federal agencies (including the Secretary of Health 
     and Human Services and the Secretary of Energy), shall form a 
     consortium, to be known as the ``Supercomputing for Safer 
     Chemicals (SUPERSAFE) Consortium'' (referred to in this 
     section as the ``Consortium''). The Consortium shall include 
     the National Laboratories of the Department of Energy, 
     academic and other research institutions, and other entities, 
     as determined by the Administrator, to carry out the 
     activities described in subsection (b).
       (2) Inclusion of state agencies.--The Administrator shall 
     allow the head of a relevant State agency to join the 
     Consortium on request of the State agency.
       (b) Consortium Activities.--
       (1) In general.--The Consortium shall use supercomputing, 
     machine learning, and other similar capabilities--
       (A) to establish rapid approaches for large-scale 
     identification of toxic substances and the development of 
     safer alternatives to toxic substances by developing and 
     validating computational toxicology methods based on unique 
     high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, machine 
     learning, and precision measurements;
       (B) to address the need to identify safe chemicals for use 
     in consumer and industrial products and in their manufacture 
     to support the move away from toxic substances and toward 
     safe-by-design alternatives; and
       (C) to make recommendations on how the information produced 
     can be applied in risk assessments and other 
     characterizations for use by the Environmental Protection 
     Agency and other agencies in regulatory decisions, and by 
     industry in identifying toxic and safer chemicals.
       (2) Models.--In carrying out paragraph (1), the 
     Consortium--
       (A) shall use supercomputers and other virtual tools to 
     develop, validate, and run models to predict adverse health 
     effects caused by toxic substances and to identify safe 
     chemicals for use in products and manufacturing; and
       (B) may utilize, as needed, appropriate biological test 
     systems to test and evaluate approaches and improve their 
     predictability and reliability in industrial and regulatory 
     applications.
       (c) Public Results.--The Consortium shall make model 
     predictions, along with supporting documentation, available 
     to the public in an accessible format.
       (d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized 
     to be appropriated to the Administrator to carry out this 
     section--
       (1) for fiscal year 2025, $20,000,000;
       (2) for fiscal year 2026, $30,000,000; and
       (3) for each of fiscal years 2027 through 2029, 
     $35,000,000.
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