S. 318 — ANCHOR Act

This section defines the following terms for purposes of the Act: (1) Director, as the Director of the National Science Foundation; (2) oceanographic research vessel, as that term is defined in 46 U.S.C. 2101; and (3) U.S. Academic Research Fleet, as U.S.-flagged vessels that (A) are accepted and active participants in the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System, (B) are operated as oceanographic research vessels by research universities and laboratories, (C) receive funding from the National Science Foundation, and (D) have achieved designation as a member vessel through a standard evaluation process.

This section directs the Director of the National Science Foundation to submit to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, not later than one year after enactment, a plan—developed in consultation with federal agencies, universities, and laboratories owning or operating vessels of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet (USARF; i.e., university-owned and operated research vessels supported by NSF and the Office of Naval Research for oceanographic research)—to improve USARF cybersecurity and telecommunications. The plan must include (1) an assessment of telecommunications and networking needs consistent with typical USARF scientific missions; (2) in consultation with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an assessment of cybersecurity needs for vessel ownership and missions; (3) an assessment of costs to meet those needs, including equipment (e.g., satellite communications, high-performance computing) and excess personnel costs (e.g., training); (4) an assessment of implementation timelines under varying budgets; (5) adoption of common solutions, consortial licensing, or centralized cybersecurity, telecommunications, or data management; and (6) in consultation with non-federal USARF vessel owners, a spending plan involving NSF, ONR, non-federal owners, USARF users, or combinations thereof. In developing the plan, the Director must consider (1) network capabilities (e.g., speed, bandwidth) for vessel functions such as telemedicine, data uploads, real-time streaming, remote scientific surveys, and operational maintenance; and (2) in consultation with CISA, NIST, and other agencies as appropriate, the 2021 JASON report on NSF facility cybersecurity, information security standards (e.g., encryption, incident response), personnel access and training, and requirements for controlled unclassified or classified information.