A bill to require the Secretary of Defense assess and, as appropriate, implement open technical standards for digital content provenance, and for other purposes.

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3563 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 3563

    To require the Secretary of Defense assess and, as appropriate, 
implement open technical standards for digital content provenance, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           December 18, 2025

 Mr. Peters (for himself and Ms. Ernst) introduced the following bill; 
  which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To require the Secretary of Defense assess and, as appropriate, 
implement open technical standards for digital content provenance, and 
                          for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. ROADMAP FOR ADVANCING DIGITAL CONTENT PROVENANCE STANDARDS.

    (a) In General.--Not later than June 1, 2026, the Secretary of 
Defense shall develop a roadmap to guide potential future adoption and 
integration of digital content provenance capabilities across the 
Department of Defense.
    (b) Elements.--The roadmap developed pursuant to subsection (a) 
shall--
            (1) identify and assess current and proposed open technical 
        standards for digital content provenance that could be applied 
        to publicly released digital media assets produced by the 
        Department of Defense, the military components, and field 
        activities of the Department;
            (2) identify strategic objectives relating to securing and 
        authenticating public-facing digital content;
            (3) describe relevant roles and responsibilities across 
        military departments and components of the Department;
            (4) explore the establishment of standardized processes to 
        enable embedding and verification of content credentials in 
        appropriate public-facing Department media;
            (5) outline potential acquisition approaches for supporting 
        technologies and solutions;
            (6) develop metrics, as appropriate, to assess the 
        effectiveness, reliability, and scalability of digital content 
        provenance technologies;
            (7) establish an engagement mechanism for coordination with 
        relevant stakeholders, including federally funded research and 
        development centers, industry, and academia, to align efforts 
        with evolving best practices and technical capabilities; and
            (8) establish notional milestones and resource needs, 
        disaggregated by fiscal year, to inform longer-term planning.
    (c) Briefing to Congress.--Not later than July 1, 2026, the 
Secretary of Defense shall provide the congressional defense committees 
(as defined in section 101(a) of title 10, United States Code) a 
briefing on the Department's roadmap for adopting digital content 
provenance standards. The briefing should address--
            (1) initial findings regarding feasibility, opportunities, 
        and potential barriers;
            (2) stakeholder engagement to date; and
            (3) any planned next steps or pilot efforts under 
        consideration.
    (d) Definition of Digital Content Provenance.--In this section, the 
term ``digital content provenance'' means the verifiable history and 
origin of a digital asset, including information about its creation, 
ownership, and modifications over time.
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