April 30, 2026
Mr. Schiff (for himself and Mr. Ricketts) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
To require the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior to ensure that the information technology and cybersecurity and information security systems of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior are interoperable, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
Section 1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the USDA–DOI Linking Information Networks for Knowledge-sharing Act
or the LINK Act
.
Sec. 2. Interoperability of information technology and cybersecurity and information security systems of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior
(a) Definition of Secretary
In this section, the term Secretary
means the Secretary of Agriculture.
(b) Coordination required
(1) In general
The Secretary and the Secretary of the Interior shall coordinate with each other to ensure that the information technology and cybersecurity and information security systems of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior, respectively, are interoperable to allow for the sharing between the Secretary and the Secretary of the Interior of information with respect to covered activities of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior, respectively, described in paragraph (2), excluding any Tribal proprietary data, sensitive cave location data, or other sensitive or proprietary information, as designated by law (including regulations).
(2) Description of covered activities
The covered activities referred to in paragraph (1) are—
(A)
Federal land management activities, with an emphasis on activities that would leverage existing integration efforts and capabilities, such as wildfire operations;
(B)
disaster and emergency preparedness and response activities; and
(C)
procurement, aviation management, personnel and workforce management, and other business system activities relating to the conduct of the activities described in subparagraphs (A) and (B).
(3) Applicable law
In carrying out paragraph (1), the Secretary and the Secretary of the Interior shall comply with applicable Federal information technology system laws, including subtitle III of title 40 and chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code.
(4) Consultation; tribal data sovereignty
In carrying out paragraph (1), the Secretary and the Secretary of the Interior shall—
(A)
consult with applicable Indian Tribes; and
(B)
provide appropriate protections for Tribal data sovereignty.
(c) Joint interoperability implementation plan
(1) Development
As soon as practicable after the date of enactment of this Act and in consultation with firefighters, the Secretary and the Secretary of the Interior shall jointly develop an interoperability implementation plan for the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior to enable the sharing between the Secretary and the Secretary of the Interior of the information described in subsection (b)(1).
(2) Inclusion
The interoperability implementation plan developed under paragraph (1) shall include a plan for the phased retirement of siloed legacy information technology and cybersecurity and information security systems of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior that ensures that the retirement does not result in a degradation of operational capacity or mission safety.
(3) Implementation
Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary and the Secretary of the Interior shall implement the interoperability implementation plan developed under paragraph (1).
(d) Updates to the information technology and security systems of the Department of Agriculture
As soon as practicable after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall update the information technology and cybersecurity and information security systems of the Department of Agriculture as necessary to enable the sharing between the Secretary and the Secretary of the Interior of the information described in subsection (b)(1), in accordance with the interoperability implementation plan developed under subsection (c).