S.Amdt. 812

SA 812. Mr. KING (for himself and Ms. Murkowski) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 2226, to
authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2024 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 E of title III, add the following:

SEC. 345. BRIEFING ON ARCTIC WATCHTOWER RESEARCH.

(a) Sense of Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate that--
(1) confronting and adapting to rapidly evolving challenges
in the Arctic region, including coastal resilience, would
benefit from increased place-based, forward operating
research capacity;
(2) establishing strategically located, scalable watchtower
field research centers known as Arctic Watchtowers to conduct
on-the-ground research in Arctic gateways could improve the
reliability and breadth of monitoring data to inform decision
making of the Department of Defense, such as when defense
operations impact mammalian habitat;
(3) locally-based, forward operating research benefits from
robust partnerships with regional and local universities,
Tribal communities, and international collaboration;
(4) on the ground, forward operating research data can
complement satellite and other data on littoral
meteorological or ecosystem changes;
(5) the National Strategy for the Arctic Region highlights
the need to invest in research in such region and
collaboration with Arctic communities for co-production of
knowledge to advance monitoring and predictive capacity, such
as--
(A) maritime domain awareness;
(B) operational oceanography;
(C) tracking shifts in sea ice flows;
(D) monitoring emerging trade routes; and
(E) reduction of data gaps where they exist; and
(6) the Secretary of Defense should consider investments in
watchtower research efforts in the Arctic and near-Arctic
region as part of the execution of such strategy.
(b) Briefing.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall provide
to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and the
House of Representatives a briefing on the potential benefits
to be derived from, and the feasibility of, establishing
watchtower field research centers in the Arctic and near-
Arctic region.
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