Darren Soto: “I want to commend the managers of the House Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2024 Appropriations bill for including my…”

“I want to commend the managers of the House Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2024 Appropriations bill for including my amendment No. 122 in En Bloc 3, to provide a $5 million increase within the Air Force RDT&E account, to the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) trusted microchip manufacturing prototype program in the en bloc package. Microelectronics support nearly all DoD activities, enabling capabilities such as the global positioning system, radar, command and control, and communication. Ensuring secure access to leading-edge microelectronics, however, is a challenge. The pandemic exposed the challenges associated with the global supply chain, the changing global semiconductor industry, and the sophistication of U.S. adversaries. who might target military electronic components. The AFRL is working on a new modelling and simulation research program to advance next generation semiconductor design and manufacturing, called a secure digital twin. Funding for the zero-trust environment for semiconductor technology will help provide the capabilities to deliver solutions to protect against malicious function insertion, fraudulent products, theft of intellectual property, and reliability failures within DoD semiconductors. I believe Congress should continue to provide the resources necessary to update our domestic microelectronics security framework.…”