[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 131 (Wednesday, July 30, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4932-S4933]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SA 3158. Mr. WELCH submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 2296, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year
2026 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 in title XVI, insert the
following:
SEC. 16__. MANAGING RISKS RELATING TO MILITARY USE OF
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.
(a) Ledger of Use and Deployment.--
(1) In general.--Not later than one year after the date of
the enactment of this Act the Secretary of Defense shall
commence creating, and not later than three years after the
date of the enactment of this Act the Secretary shall
complete creating, a ledger of all uses by the Department of
Defense of covered systems.
(2) Requirements.--The Secretary shall ensure that the
ledger created pursuant to paragraph (1)--
(A) is a structured, indexed database; and
(B) maintained and updated on a regular basis to ensure
that the ledger is accurate.
(b) Risk Assessment Process.--
(1) In general.--Not later than three years after the date
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall establish a
risk assessment process that holistically evaluates each
unique implementation by the Department of a covered system
included in the ledger required by subsection (a).
(2) Elements.--
(A) In general.--The process required by paragraph (1)
shall, at a minimum, cover matters relating to the following:
(i) Dependability.
(ii) Cybersecurity.
(iii) Privacy.
(iv) Bias.
(v) Bias towards escalation.
(vi) Deployment span.
(vii) Risk of civilian harm.
(B) Bias towards escalation.--For purposes of subparagraph
(A)(v), the process shall cover the intent of the system and
assess for any bias relating to whether the technology ever
escalates or deescalates conflict situations.
(C) Deployment span.--For purposes of subparagraph (A)(vi),
the process shall address changes in risk levels based on
whether covered systems are deployed singularly or in
clusters or swarms.
(3) Annual assessments.--The Secretary shall ensure that
the process required by paragraph (1) requires reevaluation
of each covered system included in the ledger required by
subsection (a)--
(A) not less frequently than annually; and
(B) whenever--
(i) the underlying foundation artificial intelligence model
receives an update;
(ii) the Department procures any covered system that has
not previously been evaluated by the process; and
(iii) a new weapons review of a covered system is conducted
by the Department.
(c) Annotations Regarding Exports.--The Secretary shall
annotate in the ledger required by subsection (a) when--
(1) a covered system developed or owned by the Department
is shared with a foreign country, exported to a foreign
country, or used by any foreign person or government; and
(2) such sharing, exporting, or use presents additional
risk covered by the risk assessment process required by
subsection (b).
[[Page S4933]]
(d) Progress Reports to Congress.--Not later than one year
after the date of the enactment of this Act and not less
frequently once each year thereafter until the date that is
three years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the
Secretary shall submit to Congress a report on the progress
of the Secretary in carrying out this Act.
(e) Annual Submissions to Congress.--
(1) In general.--Not later than three years after the date
of the enactment of this Act and not less frequently than
once each year thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to
Congress an annual submission that includes the following:
(A) The ledger required by subsection (a).
(B) An annual report on the findings of the Secretary with
respect to the risk assessments conducted, in the year
covered by the annual submission, pursuant to the risk
assessment process established under subsection (b).
(C) The annotations made under subsection (c) during the
year covered by the annual submission.
(2) Form.--Each submission under paragraph (1) shall be, to
the fullest extent possible, in unclassified form, but may
include a classified annex to the degree the Secretary
considers necessary.
(3) Public availability.--The Secretary shall make
available to the public the unclassified portion of each
annual submission under paragraph (1).
(f) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that
the ledger created pursuant to subsection (a)(1) will reflect
strong and continuing commitment of the Department of Defense
to being a transparent global leader in establishing
responsible policies regarding military uses of artificial
intelligence-enabled weapons, targeting, and decision support
systems.
(g) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be
construed to reduce any existing privacy, safety, or security
protections or guardrails in effect before the date of the
enactment of this Act.
(h) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) The term ``artificial intelligence'' has the meaning
given such term in section 5002 of the National Artificial
Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 (15 U.S.C. 9401)
(2) The term ``covered system'' includes the following
systems that are enabled by artificial intelligence:
(A) A weapon system.
(B) A targeting system.
(C) A decision support system that aids a system described
in subparagraph (A) or (B).
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