{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://guest.house.gov/media/press-releases/committee-homeland-security-passes-guests-paths-act", "Committee on Homeland Security Passes Guest\u2019s PATHS Act", "2024-09-13", "2024", "2024-09", "Republican", "House", "MS", "Michael Guest", "G000591", "guest.house.gov", "guest", "https://guest.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 On Wednesday, the Committee on Homeland Security passed H.R. 9459, the \u201cProducing Advanced Technologies for Homeland Security Act\u201d or \u201cPATHS Act,\u201d by a unanimous vote. The bill was introduced by Congressman Michael Guest (R-Miss) and Congressman Glenn Ivey (D- Md). Under the legislation, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would be granted authority to enter into other transaction agreements, or OTAs. These legally binding agreements allow the Department to engage with non-traditional contractors that would not normally do business with the Federal Government, from small business innovators to public universities, to meet the Department\u2019s research and development or prototype project needs.\n\nCongressman Guest stated, \u201cFrom prototypes to help CBP detect threats and illicit goods hidden inside vehicles at the border, to research to adapt machine learning practices that can identify supply chain anomalies to prevent the importation of goods that rely on forced labor, to a project conducted by the University of Mississippi to develop sensors for unmanned maritime vehicles for DHS and United States Coast Guard use \u2013 the applicability and usefulness of this authority cannot be overstated. The authority expires on September 30th of this year, and I\u2019m happy that we are taking steps to reauthorize it.\u201d\n\nCongressman Glenn Ivey stated: \u201cI am pleased that the Homeland Security Committee has unanimously passed the bipartisan PATHS Act. This bill will enhance the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s ability to develop cutting-edge solutions to strengthen our homeland security,\u201d said Rep. Ivey \u201cI want to thank Congressman Michael Guest for his partnership on this legislation and urge its swift passage in the House.\u201d\n\nThis legislation would reauthorize DHS use of OTAs for three years, until 2027. This bill would require DHS to provide notification to Congress to explain all uses or extensions of the transaction authority involving artificial intelligence technology. To improve transparency, this legislation would decrease the threshold for what defines a \u2018covered contract award\u2019 under the DHS Contract Reporting Act from $4 million to $1 million. This would require DHS to report transactions valued at $1 million or more on its public website. This bill would continue to encourage private sector innovations and solutions to government bureaucracy.", 1, "2026-04-07T15:46:19Z", "2026-04-07T21:43:57Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://guest.house.gov/media/press-releases/committee-homeland-security-passes-guests-paths-act"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6105768736451864, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}