On Tuesday, July 5, a provision focused on immersive technology was included in the House Appropriations Committee’s Report for the Departments of Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development.

The language, based off language drafted by the XR Association, encourages the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology to consider the potential of immersive technology for remote collaboration by engineers, architects, and construction workers to improve worker safety.

Immersive technology was also included in the House Appropriations Committee’s Report for the Commerce, Justice, and Science and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs spending bills. The language encourages the Department of Veterans Affairs to continue its Trauma Management Therapy study that explores exposure therapy involving virtual reality (VR) for treatment of PTSD. The Report also emphasizes the importance of immersive police training and urges the use of VR and augmented reality (AR) to support training for de-escalation techniques. Inclusion of this language is a promising sign that lawmakers are increasingly interested in the applications of extended reality (XR) technology.