STANDARDS-SETTING BILL

Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) on Friday introduced a bill to improve U.S. competitiveness against China and other nations by strengthening the nation’s ability to set standards around emerging technologies.

The new legislation would create a task force led by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to develop a long-term plan to assess standards around emerging technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence.

The task force would include representatives from multiple U.S. federal agencies, who would engage with both academia and the private sector. The ultimate goal would be to create a strategy to engage with international organizations on standards-setting and prevent China from dominating the standards-setting space around emerging technologies.

The new bill was rolled out as both Congress and the Biden administration have increasingly zeroed in on competition with China and threats posed by the nation to the United States.