Text of Senate Amendment 6565

On 2026-07-13, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) delivered a floor speech titled "Text Of Senate Amendment 6565" in the Senate.

Text of Senate Amendment 6565

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 113 (Monday, July 13, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 113 (Monday, July 13, 2026)] [Senate] [Pages S3750-S3751] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] SA 6565. Mr. CRUZ submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 4784, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2027 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 B of title III, add the following: SEC. 320C. SHARING OF DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE ENVIRONMENTAL OBSERVATIONAL DATA. (a) Requirement.--Not later than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Commerce in coordination with the Secretary of the Navy, the Secretary of the Air Force, and the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, shall establish a process under which the Secretary of Defense, on a continual or recurring basis, shall review and share environmental observational data collected by the Department of Defense with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the purposes of improving weather, ocean, space weather forecasting, or any other mission area of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as determined by the Secretary of Defense. (b) Data Eligible for Sharing.--The process established under subsection (a) shall identify real-time, near real- time, and longer-time series environmental observational data that-- (1) the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Commerce agree is likely to improve weather, ocean, or space weather forecasts; (2) is able to be released in an unclassified or declassified form; (3) may be shared within the United States Government, notwithstanding restrictions on further redistribution outside the United States Government; and [[Page S3751]] (4) can be shared in standard machine-readable formats and includes metadata. (c) Sharing Constraints.--In establishing the process under subsection (a), the Secretary of Defense shall establish procedures to unilaterally take a covered action if the Secretary determines that-- (1) such action will protect a sensitive source or method or preserve the security of military operations; or (2) a civilian agency information technology system is not cybersecure or fails to meet Department of Defense discovery metadata specification and verification protocols. (d) Consultation Requirement.--Not later than 48 hours after taking a covered action under subsection (c), the Secretary of Defense shall consult with the Secretary of Commerce regarding the covered action to include identifying the rationale and any requirements for lifting the covered action. (e) Report to Congress.--Not later than two years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Commerce shall jointly submit to Congress a report describing-- (1) categories of environmental observational data identified for potential sharing under subsection (a); (2) barriers to declassification or release of such data; (3) cybersecurity procedures and any challenge to data sharing, including ensuring degraded data is not shared; (4) reciprocal sharing of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's data with the Department of Defense; (5) the process established to provide recurring coordination between the Department of Defense and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration regarding planned technical, hardware, architectural, or data management changes that could materially affect the secure, reliable, or continuous exchange of environmental observational data; and (6) recommendations to improve interagency data sharing and any other relevant recommendations. (f) Covered Action Defined.--In this section, the term ``covered action'' means-- (1) withholding declassification or release of data; (2) placing limitations or restrictions on further distribution of data received by the Secretary of Commerce; and (3) severing connectivity of data sharing implementation. ______