To direct the Secretary of Defense to provide senior officials of the Department of Defense with secure mobile phones, and for other purposes.
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Bacon introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Summary
What This Bill Does
This bill requires the Department of Defense to provide senior officials and employees with sensitive national security roles with specially secured mobile phones. The phones must include enhanced cybersecurity features like encryption, anti-tracking capabilities, and continuous monitoring.
Who Benefits and How
Cybersecurity contractors and secure mobile phone manufacturers gain new government contracts as the DoD must procure specialized equipment meeting strict security requirements. Encrypted telecommunications providers and endpoint security companies also benefit from increased demand for their specialized services. Defense industry cybersecurity firms with capabilities in encryption, device monitoring, and anti-surveillance technology are well-positioned to win these contracts.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Department of Defense faces new procurement requirements and administrative burdens, including submitting a report to Congress within 180 days detailing contracts, criteria for identifying sensitive positions, and total costs. Taxpayers ultimately bear the costs of more expensive secure devices and telecommunications services. Traditional mobile carriers without enhanced security capabilities may lose DoD business to specialized secure communications providers.
Key Provisions
- Requires DoD to provide secure phones to senior officials and employees with sensitive national security functions within 90 days
- Mandates enhanced cybersecurity protections including: encryption of all data and communications, capabilities to rotate device identifiers to prevent tracking, and continuous device monitoring
- Requires the Secretary of Defense to report to Congress within 180 days on contracts entered, criteria for determining sensitive roles, number of affected employees, and total costs
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
Requires the Department of Defense to provide secure mobile phones with enhanced cybersecurity protections to senior officials and personnel performing sensitive national security functions.
Policy Domains
Legislative Strategy
"Mandate enhanced cybersecurity standards for DoD mobile communications to protect against surveillance and tracking of senior defense officials"
Likely Beneficiaries
- Cybersecurity and defense telecommunications contractors
- Secure mobile phone manufacturers
- Encrypted communications service providers
Likely Burden Bearers
- Department of Defense (implementation and procurement costs)
- Taxpayers (funding increased telecommunications costs)
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Defense
- "the_department"
- → Department of Defense
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Functions determined by the Secretary of Defense to be sensitive to national security
Protections that include: (1) encryption of data on wireless mobile phones and all telecommunications, (2) capabilities to mitigate or obfuscate persistent device identifiers including periodic rotation of network or hardware identifiers, and (3) capability to continuously monitor wireless mobile phones
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology