{"slug": "tech-bills-of-the-week-leveraging-ai-for-environmental-evaluations-crafting-a-on", "title": "Tech Bills of the Week: Leveraging AI for environmental evaluations; crafting a report on China’s AI ecosystem; and more", "summary": "Two new U.S. bills propose using AI for military environmental assessments and monitoring China's AI chip sector. The Military Readiness Through Resilient Lands Act, introduced Aug. 6 by Reps. George Whitesides, Chrissy Houlahan, and Mike Haridopolos, would require the Department of Defense to use AI to evaluate natural resources near military bases to prevent natural disasters from disrupting operations. The China AI Power Report Act, introduced Aug. 7 by Sen. Jon Husted, would mandate an annual report from the Commerce and State departments on China's AI chip manufacturing, with the first report due 180 days after enactment.", "body_md": "# Tech Bills of the Week: Leveraging AI for environmental evaluations; crafting a report on China’s AI ecosystem; and more\n\n## Recently proposals look, in part, to deploy artificial intelligence solutions to prevent natural disasters from impeding U.S. military operations and evaluate China’s AI chip manufacturing sector.\n\n**Using AI for environmental evaluations near military sites**\n\nA bill introduced on Aug. 6 aims to fortify the U.S. military by improving the management of natural resources near military installations with the help of AI technology.\n\n[The Military Readiness Through Resilient Lands Act](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/10069/text?s=2&r=3&hl=artificial+intelligence) — introduced by Reps. George Whitesides, D-Calif., Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., and Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla. — seeks to amend the Sikes Act of 1960 to modernize the Pentagon’s conservation efforts for natural resources located on military bases.\n\nThe bill would support the conservation provisions stipulated in the Sikes Act by mandating the Department of Defense to assess and, as deemed appropriate, apply AI and other technologies to help develop and maintain site-specific conservation goals and metrics. AI would be used to support the “assessment of natural resources and ecosystem services as relevant to mission readiness, climate resilience, or community safety on military installations.”\n\nIn applying advanced technologies like AI to evaluate the status of the environment and natural resources near military bases, Defense can then forecast and prevent natural disasters from impeding national security operations.\n\n“As our nation’s military continues to protect our country, it is imperative that our bases and installations are prepared for potential threats, including natural disasters,” said Whitesides in [a press release](https://whitesides.house.gov/2026/08/07/reps-whitesides-houlahan-haridopolos-introduce-bipartisan-bill-to-bolster-military-readiness-for-natural-disasters/). “If a wildfire strikes a military installation, like we saw in Camp Pendleton earlier this year, it could shut down its operations, putting all of us at risk. Through the use of advanced technology and cutting-edge monitoring systems, our military can better understand the natural resources that exist on their installations, and take preventative actions to protect the installation from threats like natural disasters.”\n\n**Monitoring AI in China**\n\nSen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, introduced a measure on Aug. 7 that seeks to provide a closer look at China’s AI stack manufacturing sector via an annual review.\n\nThe bill, [the China AI Power Report Act](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/5382/text?s=2&r=2&hl=artificial+intelligence), tasks the secretaries of the departments of Commerce and State with spearheading an annual report on what China’s government is doing to further advance its AI stack, specifically focusing on its supply chain operations.\n\nThe state of semiconductor chips being manufactured and employed in China is the starring topic of the report. The report would assess details like the processing power and efficiency of AI computing chips, corresponding software, chip manufacturing costs, and other chip design and sector details.\n\n“America must continue to compete and win in the technology race, but we know that communist China’s strategy has never been to compete, but to steal and exploit. This bipartisan package would strengthen our understanding of China’s action, improve enforcement and protect American companies, workers and innovations from Chinese espionage,” Husted [said in a press release](https://www.husted.senate.gov/media/press-releases/husted-warner-lead-bipartisan-package-of-bills-to-strengthen-u-s-national-security-and-hold-china-accountable/).\n\nThe inaugural report would be due 180 days following the bill’s ratification, and then annually for three years. Select congressional committees would receive the report at an unclassified level.\n\n**Limiting adversaries’ access to national labs**\n\nRep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., [introduced](https://harrigan.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-pat-harrigan-introduces-gate-act-protect-us-national-laboratories) a proposal on Friday that seeks to restrict foreign nationals’ access to U.S. national laboratories if the individuals are from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea or Cuba.\n\nThe bill would prohibit covered foreign nationals from accessing national lab “facilities, information, or technology as visitors or long-term assignees.” The Energy Department would also be given the authority to grant waivers after consulting with agency intelligence officials and FBI counterintelligence officials in instances “when the benefits to the United States outweigh the national security and economic risks.”\n\nThe measure, the Guarding American Technology from Exploitation — or GATE — Act, is a House companion to a bill [introduced](https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-colleagues-get-spies-out-of-our-national-labs) by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., in March.\n\n“China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea have spent years targeting American innovation to close the technological gap with the United States,” Harrigan said in a statement. “The GATE Act puts a clear safeguard around critical American research while preserving access when our own counterintelligence professionals determine it serves the national interest.”\n\n**Shoring up the cybersecurity of U.S. water infrastructure**\n\nSens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., [rolled out a measure](https://www.schiff.senate.gov/news/press-releases/news-sens-schiff-klobuchar-release-comprehensive-cybersecurity-bill-in-wake-of-recent-cyberattacks-on-water-infrastructure/) on Monday that looks to enhance the cyber defenses of critical U.S. water infrastructure services by empowering the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct cybersecurity assessments of public water systems, and then require corrective steps when significant vulnerabilities are identified in the services.\n\nThe EPA would also “establish tiered cybersecurity standards” in consultation with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and other state and local partners and stakeholders.\n\nLarge drinking water and wastewater systems would be directed to evaluate cyber risks as part of their current risk and reliance planning measures, and an additional $300 million would be added annually to the Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Funds dedicated to cyber enhancements within critical wastewater services.\n\n“Every American depends on safe, reliable drinking water, yet recent events have exposed just how vulnerable our water systems remain to cyberattacks by foreign adversaries and criminal entities,” Schiff said in a statement. “These threats are not hypothetical—they are happening right now. This legislation gives EPA the tools it needs to protect this critical infrastructure while providing the resources that local water and wastewater systems need to strengthen their cybersecurity without passing the cost on to ratepayers.”\n\nThe proposal’s unveiling comes after a wave of cyberattacks linked to Iranian hackers [affected](https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2026/07/cyber-industry-coalition-urges-federal-action-after-suspected-iran-linked-water-hacks/415156/) more than 30 water utilities in Minnesota last month.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tech-bills-of-the-week-leveraging-ai-for-environmental-evaluations-crafting-a-on", "canonical_source": "https://www.nextgov.com/policy/2026/08/tech-bills-week-leveraging-ai-environmental-evaluations-crafting-new-report-chinas-ai-stack-ecosystem-and-limiting-adversarial-access-national-labs/415441/", "published_at": "2026-08-14 22:31:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-14 23:13:23.859436+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy", "artificial-intelligence"], "entities": ["George Whitesides", "Chrissy Houlahan", "Mike Haridopolos", "Jon Husted", "Department of Defense", "Department of Commerce", "Department of State", "China"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tech-bills-of-the-week-leveraging-ai-for-environmental-evaluations-crafting-a-on", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tech-bills-of-the-week-leveraging-ai-for-environmental-evaluations-crafting-a-on.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tech-bills-of-the-week-leveraging-ai-for-environmental-evaluations-crafting-a-on.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tech-bills-of-the-week-leveraging-ai-for-environmental-evaluations-crafting-a-on.jsonld"}}