Bipartisan Effort to Establish Tech Diplomacy Among Democratic Countries Led by Future Caucus Members

On May 20th, 2021, Congressional Future Caucus (CFC) member Rep. Seth Moulton (MA-6) introduced HR3426, the Democracy Technology Partnership Act in the House of Representatives. Future Caucus members Rep. Adam Kinzinger (IL-16) and Rep. Ruben Gallego (AZ-7) are co-sponsors of the bill. 

The legislation, which is active and has been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, seeks to authorize a Technology Partnership among democratic countries. A companion measure, S604, introduced by Senator Mark Warner, is co-sponsored by some of the youngest members of the Senate including Senators Todd Young, Marco Rubio, and Ben Sasse. 

The bipartisan bill would establish the International Technology Partnership Office, “TPO”, led by a Special Ambassador for Technology located in the Department of State. The TPO would be tasked with advancing U.S. technology policy via an International Technology Partnership with democratic countries. 

The partnership with democratic countries would focus on the development of key technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, semiconductor chip manufacturing, and quantum computing. The democratic countries would be required to have a demonstrated record of trust or an expressed interest in cooperation and coordination with the United States on intelligence and defense matters. 

The bill would also establish, within the Department of the Treasury, the International Technology Partnership Fund. The State Department would be allowed to use this fund to support joint research projects with member countries and technology investments in third-country markets. 

The bill is a strong bipartisan effort to address the growing technological competition between the United States and China. The bill currently has 6 Democratic and 2 Republican cosponsors.