Text of Senate Amendment 6247

On 2026-06-24, Senator Margaret Wood Hassan (D-NH) delivered a floor speech titled "Text Of Senate Amendment 6247" in the Senate.

Text of Senate Amendment 6247

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 106 (Wednesday, June 24, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 106 (Wednesday, June 24, 2026)] [Senate] [Pages S3409-S3410] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] SA 6247. Ms. HASSAN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by her 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 II, add the following: SEC. 225. PRIZE COMPETITIONS TO ADVANCE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE INTERPRETABILITY AND ADVERSARIAL ROBUSTNESS. (a) Prize Competition for Artificial Intelligence Interpretability Research.-- (1) Interpretability prize competition.--Not later than 270 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security (in this section, referred to as the ``Secretary'') shall commence carrying out at least one prize competition under section 24 of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3719) to advance the science of interpretability in a manner relevant to commercially available or widely used artificial intelligence products. (2) Consultation.--In carrying out the prize competition required by paragraph (1), the Secretary shall consult with-- (A) the Secretary of Commerce; (B) the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology; (C) the National Cyber Director; (D) the Director of the National Science Foundation; and (E) any industry expert from the artificial intelligence sector in the United States that the Secretary considers relevant. (3) Structure and evaluation criteria.-- (A) In general.--The Secretary shall develop the structure and evaluation criteria for a prize competition carried out under paragraph (1) in accordance with the primary purpose described in that paragraph. (B) Competition structure.--The Secretary may-- (i) structure a competition under paragraph (1) into one or more phases, including submission of interpretability frameworks, submission of interpretable artificial intelligence models, and unique basic research; and (ii) open these phases to the same, or to distinct, contestant pools. (C) Evaluation considerations.--In developing the evaluation criteria for the frameworks, models, or methods submitted for a prize competition under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall consider-- (i) the degree to which a submission advances broadly applicable principles of artificial intelligence interpretability; (ii) the practical value of a submission in making artificial intelligence more understandable and reliable in high-risk, high-value use cases; and [[Page S3410]] (iii) the likelihood that the unique research submitted will create standards for artificial intelligence interpretability in the government or industry. (4) Program administration.--The Secretary may enter into contracts, cooperative agreements, or other agreements with for-profit or nonprofit entities or State, territorial, local, or Tribal agencies to design and administer any prize competition carried out under paragraph (1). (b) Prize Competition for Artificial Intelligence Adversarial Robustness Research.-- (1) Adversarial robustness prize competition.--Not later than 270 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall commence carrying out at least one prize competition under section 24 of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3719) to develop capable artificial intelligence models that are designed to exhibit adversarial robustness in circumstances necessary for at least one high-impact, high-risk application in government or industry. (2) Consultation.--In carrying out a prize competition required by paragraph (1), the Secretary shall consult with-- (A) the Secretary of Commerce; (B) the Director of the Institute of Standards and Technology; (C) the National Cyber Director; (D) the Director of the National Science Foundation; (E) any industry expert from the artificial intelligence sector in the United States that the Secretary considers relevant; and (F) the head of any Federal agency who has authority or expertise in a high-impact, high-risk application of artificial intelligence that could be an appropriate subject for a prize competition under paragraph (1). (3) Structure and evaluation criteria.-- (A) In general.--The Secretary shall develop the structure and evaluation criteria for a prize competition carried out under paragraph (1) in accordance with the primary purpose described in that paragraph. (B) Competition structure.--The Secretary may-- (i) structure a competition under paragraph (1) into one or more phases, including submission of adversarial robustness frameworks, submission of artificial intelligence models, and red-teaming; and (ii) open these phases to the same, or to distinct, contestant pools. (C) Evaluation considerations.--In developing the evaluation criteria for the frameworks, models, or methods submitted for a prize competition under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall consider-- (i) the degree to which a submission advances broadly applicable principles of artificial intelligence robustness; and (ii) the practical value of the submission in reducing the risk of adversarial attacks in high-risk, high-value use cases of artificial intelligence. (4) Program administration.--The Secretary may enter into contracts, cooperative agreements, or other agreements with for-profit or nonprofit entities or State, territorial, local, or Tribal agencies to design and administer any prize competition carried out under paragraph (1). (c) Tracking and Reporting.-- (1) In general.--Not later than 180 days after the date on which the first prize competition concludes, the Secretary shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report that includes-- (A) an evaluation of how the results of the competitions inform the fields of interpretability and adversarial robustness; (B) an assessment of any gaps in these fields identified by the Secretary over the course of the competitions; and (C) any suggested action that Congress should take to advance the fields of interpretability, adversarial robustness, and any related research. (2) Appropriate congressional committees defined.--In this section, the term ``appropriate congressional committees'' means-- (A) the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; and (B) the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives. (d) Appropriations.--There is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary to carry out this section $10,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2027 through 2030. (e) Definitions.--In this section: (1) The term ``adversarial robustness'' means the degree to which an artificial intelligence model is able to resist attacks that would induce it to produce incorrect, restricted, or harmful outputs, while maintaining integrity, reliability, and privacy. (2) The term ``artificial intelligence'' has the meaning given the term in section 5002 of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 (15 U.S.C. 9401). (3) The term ``interpretability'' means the degree to which humans are able to accurately understand how an artificial intelligence model makes decisions and considers inputs and how the outputs or behaviors of the model respond to a change in the inputs. (4) The term ``red-teaming'' means a structured, interactive, and adversarial process to test an artificial intelligence system by simulating real-world actions to find vulnerabilities or flaws in the system. ______