Ranking Member Lofgren's Opening Statement at Hearing on Research Security
Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) opening statement as prepared for the record is below:
Thank you, Chairman McCormick and Ranking Member Sykes, for this hearing. Thank you to our witnesses for appearing today.
As I said before, I hope that research security remains a bipartisan and productive topic for this Committee. We have an impressive legacy of legislation and oversight on research security. For years, on both sides of the aisle, we have maintained a deep understanding of, and respect for, the spirit of openness that animates fundamental research. Republicans and Democrats alike have taken threats to research security seriously, while understanding that in order to be the world leader in science and discovery, we must welcome international collaboration.
So, I do not minimize the importance of this topic. Nevertheless, I question why we are holding a second hearing on research security when there is no evidence the Trump Administration has implemented anything of substance on research security this year. Quite the contrary, he has taken countless egregious actions that are damaging the very research these policies were designed to protect.
I’ve previously spoken about many of these destructive actions – so today I’d like to focus on what we are at risk of losing.
For years now, Democrats and Republicans celebrated the fact that the United States was the chosen home of world-class talent. We took pride in the fact that nearly 80% of foreign-born STEM PhD recipients chose to remain in the U.S. Since 2000, around 40% of all U.S. Nobel laureates have been foreign-born. Furthermore, according to an analysis from the National Foundation for American Policy, more than half of startups valued at $1 billion or more were started by immigrants. What happens if we block or discourage foreign-born STEM talent from opportunities in the United States? Here’s the simple answer – they take their know-how and entrepreneurial spirit to other countries, allies and adversaries alike. Welcoming international talent is essential to advancing the economic and national security of the United States.
In our first hearing this session, we heard testimony from former Congresswoman and Secretary of the Air Force, Heather Wilson, that the People’s Republic of China is vastly overtaking the United States in several areas of emerging technologies. According to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s studies that Ms. Wilson cited, China now leads in 66 of the 74 emerging technologies. In the years prior to this administration, U.S. federal research funding was already stagnant at best, despite multiple reports citing China’s growing advantage. We are now in the worst of times, with the Trump Administration politicizing grant-making, dismantling our Federal science agencies, and undermining confidence in the U.S. as a trusted partner.
This is not how you compete with China – this is how you surrender. This is not how you make America healthier. It’s how you needlessly send children to the hospital with measles, pertussis, and other diseases entirely preventable with vaccines. This is not how you make America great. It’s how you undermine our resilience to natural disasters, epidemics, and all manner of risks to our national security and societal wellbeing. And this is not how you build a scientific ecosystem that produces research worth protecting in the first place. It’s how you atrophy our excellence past the point of no return.
The Trump Administration is responsible for implementing these disastrous policies. But Congress is complicit in its failure to exert forceful, bipartisan oversight and legislation to staunch the bleeding. I firmly support the bipartisan work that the Science Committee has done to bolster research security, and I applaud the valuable work that each of the witnesses has performed to further those goals. However, I fear that unless Republicans and Democrats alike stand against the destruction of our scientific enterprise, we are ceding our leadership to China in ways that no research security policies can prevent. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
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