S.Amdt. 2673

SA 2673. Mr. ROUNDS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to
amendment SA 2282 submitted by Mr. Inhofe (for himself and Mr. McCain)
and intended to be proposed to the bill H.R. 5515, to authorize
appropriations for fiscal year 2019 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 II, insert the following:

SEC. ___. NATIONAL DEFENSE ACCELERATOR NETWORK PILOT.

(a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) has spurred
investment from private venture capital into new non-
traditional companies that focus on national defense
solutions. Since June 2016, seven startups supported by
Defense Innovation Unit Experimental have raised close to
$720,000,000 in subsequent rounds of private venture capital
funding.
(2) An innovation ecosystem can be developed based on a hub
and spoke network closely aligned to public research
universities in partnership with the government and private
capital.
(b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) while Defense Innovation Unit Experimental has been
able to attract early stage private capital to dual-use
start-ups, more needs to be done to re-establish a dual use
innovation ecosystem in the United States similar to what was
created in the 1950s and early 1960s in radar and
microelectronics technologies;
(2) this older ecosystem eventually evolved into the
globally dominant commercial information technology industry
primarily based in Silicon Valley but was initially jump-
started based on a partnership between the Government,
leading universities, and the private sector; and
(3) new innovation networks should be developed and
incubated that would be comprised of emerging non-traditional
defense companies to enable the Department of Defense to
stabilize and then hopefully begin to close the digital and
technological gap that is beginning to emerge in many key
areas with United States competitors.
(c) Pilot Required.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary of Defense shall conduct a
pilot program to assess innovation network capabilities.
(2) Establishment of network.--In carrying out the pilot
program required by paragraph (1), the Secretary shall
establish a network of the dual-use startups produced under
the pilot program. Such network would be known as the
``National Defense Accelerator Network''.
(3) Initial test phase.--In carrying out the pilot program
required by paragraph (1), the Secretary may carry out an
initial test phase at one leading university that--
(A) has an established leadership team that is intimately
familiar with the workings of In-Q-Tel and Defense Innovation
Unit Experimental; and
(B) has established relationships with leading venture
capital firms and other sources of early stage financial
capital.
(4) Producing dual-use startups.--The pilot program
required by paragraph (1) shall be a pilot program to assess
the ability to produce dual-use startups focused on priority
defense technology that attract seed and round A financing
from premier venture capital firms in the United States.
(5) Scalability.--The Secretary shall ensure that the pilot
program conducted under paragraph (1) is designed to be
scalable and, if successful, enlarged to consist of at least
10 and not more than 20 leading regionally-based public
research universities.
(d) Semiannual Reports.--Not less frequently than once
every six months for the first two years of the pilot program
conducted under subsection (c), the Secretary shall brief the
congressional defense committees on the progress of the
Secretary in carrying out the pilot program.
(e) Funding.--Of the amounts appropriated or otherwise made
available by this Act for the Industrial Base Analysis and
Sustainment program (IBAS), Defense Innovation Unit
Experimental, the Rapid Innovation Fund (RIF), and for any
purpose relating to strengthening and improving the defense
industrial base, $5,000,000 shall be available to carry out
the pilot program required by subsection (c).
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