S.Amdt. 3631

SA 3631. Mr. HICKENLOOPER 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 end of subtitle A of title XV, add the following:

SEC. 1508. STRATEGY ON INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND
RECONNAISSANCE CAPABILITIES TO IMPROVE
SITUATIONAL AWARENESS AND ENHANCE DEEP SENSING,
PARTICULARLY IN CONTESTED ENVIRONMENTS.

(a) In General.--The Secretary of the Army shall develop a
tactical high-altitude intelligence, surveillance, and
reconnaissance strategy focused on addressing advancements in
foreign adversarial high-altitude systems that offer
persistent, low-signature, mass-swarm, and deep-ingress
intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.
(b) Elements.--The strategy required by subsection (a)
shall include, at a minimum--
(1) options for streamlining and formalizing investment in
novel high-altitude platforms, including tactical
stratosphere balloons, across Army organizations, task
forces, and commands;
(2) policy and budgetary changes that could facilitate more
rapid adoption of existing technologies and reduce platform
costs; and
(3) plans to assess and leverage investments made by the
other military departments, the United States Special
Operations Command, Defense agencies and field activities,
and the intelligence community.
(c) Briefing.--Not later than March 1, 2026, the Secretary
of the Army shall brief the appropriate committees of
Congress on the strategy required by this section and options
to deploy capabilities and centralize efforts.
(d) Appropriate Committees of Congress Defined.--In this
section, the term ``appropriate committees of Congress''
means--
(1) the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate; and
(2) the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on
Science, Space, and Technology of the House of
Representatives.
______