LINK Act

This Act may be cited as the USDA–DOI Linking Information Networks for Knowledge-sharing Act or the LINK Act.
In this section, the term Secretary means the Secretary of Agriculture.
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).
The covered activities referred to in paragraph (1) are—
Federal land management activities, with an emphasis on activities that would leverage existing integration efforts and capabilities, such as wildfire operations;
disaster and emergency preparedness and response activities; and
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).
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.
In carrying out paragraph (1), the Secretary and the Secretary of the Interior shall—
consult with applicable Indian Tribes; and
provide appropriate protections for Tribal data sovereignty.
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).
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.
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).
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).