January 2020 NIST Constituent Newsletter

NIST Congressional and Legislative Affairs

Monthly Constituent Newsletter - January 2020

LEGISLATION

NIST FY2020 Appropriations

On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed the FY2020 Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 1158), which included annual funding for NIST.  The $1.034B FY2020 budget provides a 5% increase over NIST's FY2019 enacted amount.  

View NIST FY2018-2020 Appropriations Summary.

RECENT NEWS

Face Recognition

Face Recognition Algorithm Report Released

A new NIST study into face recognition algorithms found that there is a wide range of accuracy across demographics, such as: age, sex, and either race or country of birth. The report provides an overview of NIST's Face Recognition Vendor Test for developers, integrators, end users, policy makers, and others who have familiarity with biometrics applications and performance metrics. It also outlines how NIST conducted tests and analyzed the outcomes of demographic differentials across nearly 200 face recognition algorithms from nearly 100 developers, using four collections of photographs with more than 18 million images of more than 8 million people.

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HEARINGS

Industries of the Future Hearing

On January 15th at 10:00 a.m. Dr. Walter Copan, Under Secretary for Standards and Technology and NIST Director will testify before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on the "Industries of the Future".  The hearing will examine how the United States can maintain its global economic edge in artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, quantum information science, biotechnology, and developing the next generation of wireless networks and infrastructure. 

There will be a live video stream of the hearing. 

Facial Recognition Technology Hearing

On January 15th at 10:00 a.m. Dr. Charles Romine, Director of the Information Technology Laboratory at NIST will testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform about the use of facial recognition technology.  The hearing will examine the use of facial recognition technology by private sector entities and the need for oversight of commercial use of this technology upon individuals.  

There will be a live video stream of the hearing.