Ranking Member Lofgren's Opening Statement at Hearing on China's Space Rise
(Washington, DC) – Today, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology's Subcommittee on Space is holding a hearing titled, Strategic Trajectories: Assessing China’s Space Rise and the Risks to U.S. Leadership.
Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren's (D-CA) opening statement as prepared for the record is below:
Good morning, and thank you Mr. Chairman, for holding today’s hearing. I also want to thank our expert witnesses for being here.
This topic is incredibly important for our work here on the Science Committee and the federal science, technology, and innovation enterprise. China is making unprecedented investments in research and development across science and technology, and space is a core component of their strategy. They represent a very real, constant threat to the United States’ long history as the undisputed global leader in space. It is critical that we understand the PRC’s current capabilities, plans, and strategic objectives. At the same time, it is also critical that we redouble our commitment to supporting and stewarding a strong, robust space program that continues to push the boundaries in Earth and space science, human spaceflight exploration, and space technology development.
In the first Science Committee hearing of this Congress, we heard from expert witnesses about the state of U.S. science and technology, and that China is actually leading in 37 of 44 critical technologies. In my opening remarks, I said that I could not ignore the reality outside of the four walls of this hearing room:
The new Administration was actively, and with unprecedented speed and ferocity, apparently seeking to tear down and undermine some of the very scientific foundations upon which our leadership has been so painstakingly built.
Unfortunately, here we are, ten months later, and the Administration has not relented in its destructive endeavors. The U.S. science and technology enterprise continues to take blow after blow, to this very day. NASA and the space enterprise has not been spared. This summer, the Administration launched a pressure campaign of intimidation against the entire NASA civil servant workforce, and now the agency has lost nearly 4,000 people—over 20% of its civil servant workforce, with no apparent strategy in determining who should leave and who should stay. And, just over the last couple of months—largely under the cover of a government shutdown—NASA has been rushing to shutter nearly half of the Goddard Space Flight Center’s main campus.
I could go on with the insults and injuries this Administration sees fit to impose upon this nation’s space program, but I will spare us. I’ll simply repeat something else I said in February: I simply do not understand how anyone reconciles rhetoric about competing with China with pulling the rug out from under our own research enterprise.
I do not want to speak for our witnesses, but I anticipate that we are about to hear that China is not culling its talent and technical capabilities, nor is it undermining its universities and turning the world’s brightest minds away. Yet, that is what our federal government is being forced to do today by an out-of-control White House and OMB. Congress needs to step up.
The clock is ticking. As this Administration continues to cripple our science and technology enterprise, China is deliberately and systematically implementing its long-term plans.
I have no doubt that all of us serving on this Committee want to ensure U.S. leadership in space. Words are cheap, but actions are priceless. It is up to us on this Committee and in Congress to take the necessary actions that will sustain our global leadership in space, and science and technology more broadly. Anything less is an invitation for China to take the mantle in space and more.
Thank you, and I yield back.
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