Sec. 1353. Designation of senior official for Department of Defense activities relating to, and implementation plan for, security partnership among Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States
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Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall designate a senior civilian official of the Department of Defense who shall be responsible for overseeing Department of Defense activities relating to the security partnership among Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States (commonly known as the AUKUS partnership ). Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Administrator for Nuclear Security and the Secretary of State, shall submit to the appropriate committees of Congress an implementation plan outlining Department efforts relating to the AUKUS partnership.
The plan required by paragraph
(1)shall include the following: Timelines and major anticipated milestones for the implementation of the AUKUS partnership. An identification of dependencies of such milestones on defense requirements that are— unrelated to the AUKUS partnership; and solely within the decisionmaking responsibility of Australia or the United Kingdom. Recommendations for adjustments to statutory and regulatory export authorities or frameworks, including technology transfer and protection, necessary to efficiently implement the AUKUS partnership. A consideration of the implications of the plan on the industrial base with respect to— the expansion of existing United States submarine construction capacity to fulfill United States, United Kingdom, and Australia requirements; acceleration of the restoration of United States capabilities for producing highly enriched uranium to fuel submarine reactors; stabilization of commodity markets and expanding supplies of high-grade steel, construction materials, and other resources required for improving shipyard condition and expanding throughput capacity; and coordination and synchronization of industrial sourcing opportunities among Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. A description of resourcing and personnel requirements, including the hiring of additional foreign disclosure officers. A plan for improving information sharing, including— recommendations for modifications to foreign disclosure policies and processes; the promulgation of written information-sharing guidelines or policies to improve information sharing under the AUKUS partnership; the establishment of an information handling caveat specific to the AUKUS partnership; and the reduction in use of the Not Releasable to Foreign Nations (NOFORN) information handling caveat. Processes for the protection of privately held intellectual property, including patents. A plan to leverage, for the AUKUS partnership, any relevant existing cybersecurity or technology partnership or cooperation activity between the United States and the United Kingdom or between the United States and Australia. Recommended updates to other statutory, regulatory, policy, or process frameworks. Any other matter the Secretary of Defense considers appropriate. Not later than 60 days after the date on which the plan required by subsection
(b)is submitted, and semiannually thereafter on April 1 and October 1 each year through 2029, the senior civilian official designated under subsection
(a)shall provide the congressional defense committees with a briefing on the status of all Department activities to implement the AUKUS partnership. In this section, the term appropriate committees of Congress means— the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on Foreign Relations, and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; and the Committees on Armed Services, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives.