S.Amdt. 4301

SA 4301. Mr. BLUMENTHAL submitted an amendment intended to be
proposed to amendment SA 3867 submitted by Mr. Reed and intended to be
proposed to the bill H.R. 4350, to authorize appropriations for fiscal
year 2022 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 D of title VIII, add the following:

SEC. 844. PILOT PROGRAM ON DEFENSE INNOVATION OPEN TOPICS.

(a) Establishment.--Not later than 180 days after the date
of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense, in
coordination with the Under Secretary of Defense for Research
and Engineering, the Secretary of the Air Force, Secretary of
the Army, and the Secretary of the Navy, shall establish
defense innovation open topic activities using the Small
Business Innovation Research Program in order to--
(1) increase the transition of commercial technology to the
Department of Defense;
(2) expand the small business nontraditional defense
industrial base;
(3) increase commercialization derived from defense
investments;
(4) increase diversity and participation among self-
certified small-disadvantaged businesses, minority-owned
businesses, and disabled veteran-owned businesses; and
(5) expand the ability for qualifying small businesses to
propose technology solutions to meet defense needs.
(b) Frequency.--The Department of Defense and the military
services shall conduct not less than one open topic
announcement per fiscal year.
(c) Briefing.--Not later than 180 days after the date of
teh enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall
provide the congressional defense committees a briefing on
the establishment of the program required by subsection (a).
(d) Termination.--The pilot program authorized in
subsection (a) shall terminate on October 1, 2025.
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