42 U.S.C. § 19221 — Strategy and report on the nation’s economic security, science, research, and innovation to support the national security strategy

(a) Definitions: This section defines three terms. 1. "Foreign country of concern" means the People's Republic of China, North Korea, Russia, Iran, or any other country the State Department names as a country of concern. 2. "Foreign entity of concern" means a foreign entity that fits any of these: it's named a foreign terrorist organization by the Secretary of State; it's on the Treasury Department's list of blocked people and organizations (the "SDN list"); it's owned, controlled, or directed by the government of a "covered nation" as defined elsewhere in federal law; the Attorney General says it was involved in conduct that led to a conviction under the Espionage Act, certain other spying or hacking laws, the Economic Espionage Act, the Arms Export Control Act, certain sections of this title, the Export Control Reform Act of 2018, or the International Emergency Economic Powers Act; or the Secretary of Commerce — after talking with the Secretary of Defense and the Director of National Intelligence — decides it's doing something unauthorized that harms U.S. national security or foreign policy. 3. "National security strategy" means the strategy the President already must produce under a separate law (section 3043 of title 50). (b) Strategy and report: 1. In general: Within 90 days after each national security strategy is sent to Congress, the President — acting through the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), and working with the National Science and Technology Council, the National Security Council, the Director of the National Economic Council, other relevant agency heads, and outside partners as needed — must: (A) review the national security strategy, the national defense strategy, and the national science and technology strategy, along with related programs and resources, to see how they affect U.S. competitiveness in science, technology, research, innovation, and technology transfer (including patents and licensing) in ways that support national security; (B) write or update a national strategy to improve that competitiveness in support of national security; and (C) send Congress both a report on what the review found and the strategy itself. 2. Termination: This requirement to review and report ends five years after August 9, 2022. (c) Elements: This spells out what must go in the report and the strategy. 1. The report must include: an assessment of U.S. efforts to stay ahead in key emerging technologies and stop rivals from gaining a military or economic edge; an assessment of public and private investment in security-relevant science and technology and what that means for the U.S.'s global position; a description of the country's top economic security priorities; an assessment of global science and technology trends, including threats; an assessment of how the national debt affects economic and national security; an assessment of how regional STEM innovation efforts, including state and local programs, help national security; an assessment of workforce needs in the technology areas named in the national security strategy, and what's needed to expand pathways into those fields; an assessment of the obstacles facing startups and small and mid-sized businesses that matter to national security; an assessment of how well the federal government, federally funded research centers, and national labs help move security-critical technology to market; an assessment of manufacturing capacity, logistics, and supply chains in major export industries critical to national security, including workforce, infrastructure, and broadband; an assessment of how the federal government is bringing underrepresented groups into science, research, innovation, and manufacturing; an assessment of public-private technology partnerships that support national security — including how current defense research deals are structured, and whether federally funded defense intellectual property is being manufactured in the U.S. or used by foreign businesses majority-owned, or more than 25 percent owned, by a foreign country of concern's government or by entities tied to one; recommendations for the government to better recruit and keep people with critical national-security skills; recommendations for export controls, investment screening, and counterintelligence policies to protect U.S. and allied technology leadership; and a technology annex — which may be classified — describing a lasting, coordinated approach to identifying, prioritizing, developing, and using emerging technologies that matter for national security. 2. The strategy must, as far as practical, include: a plan to use available tools against the top threats and take advantage of the top opportunities in technologies central to international competition — including specific goals, tasks, measures, and deadlines for each agency; the strategic priorities needed to keep U.S. leadership, covering near-, medium-, and long-term research goals; specific plans to protect federally funded research and technology from being stolen by foreign entities of concern; specific plans to support public and private investment in research, technology, education and workforce development, and domestic manufacturing that support national security, and to encourage public-private partnerships; an explanation of how the strategy supports the national security strategy and lines up with the most recent national defense strategy and national science and technology strategy; a plan to get allied and partner governments to help carry out the strategy; a plan to strengthen the U.S. industrial base; a plan to remove or update federal regulations that are overly burdensome or out of date; a plan to get industry more involved in public-private partnerships that speed up research and commercialization for national security — including new ways to count in-kind contributions and partly finished products — while making sure federally funded intellectual property is commercialized in the U.S. and not used by foreign businesses tied to a foreign country of concern; and a list of any extra resources or administrative or legislative steps needed to carry out the strategy. (d) Research and development funding: The OSTP Director must, whenever necessary, work with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and other White House offices to make sure the research funding priorities from the most recent report and strategy get folded into the yearly budget requests for federal research agencies. (e) Publication: The OSTP Director must post each report — as much as protecting national security and other sensitive matters allows — on OSTP's public website. Any report can include a classified section if the Director decides that's needed.