Transcript of Ranking Member Khanna’s Opening Statement from Hearing on Protecting American Innovation: The Federal Research Security Enterprise

WASHINGTON – Today, the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party held a hearing titled “Protecting American Innovation: The Federal Research Security Enterprise.” The hearing examined the potential benefits, risks, and trade-offs associated with international research collaboration, and Select Committee Democrats highlighted the impact of the Trump Administration’s budget cuts and policies scaring away leading talent on our national security and ability to innovate. 

The following witnesses provided testimony: 

• Dr. Rebecca Keiser, Acting Chief of Staff and Chief of Research Security Policy and Strategy, National Science Foundation
• Mr. Jeremy Ison, Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary for Science, Department of Energy
• Dr. Patricia Valdez, Chief Extramural Research Integrity Officer, National Institutes of Health

Below is a transcript of the opening statement from Ranking Member Khanna. Footage of the Ranking Member’s opening statement can be found here, and his questions to the witnesses can be found here. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for your leadership and for convening this important hearing. 

I represent Silicon Valley, one of the most innovative regions on Earth, and I see up close what American science can do. 

So let me start where I think we all agree – Democrats, Republicans, scientists, researchers, and every American agrees that we need to protect research security. 

Our cutting-edge research cannot be weaponized by the People’s Liberation Army or dual-use entities. Not quantum. Not sensitive AI. Not the breakthroughs that keep America safe. 

I have zero tolerance for the CCP stealing what American scientists build, and so do the career officials in front of us. 

The CCP is running a deliberate campaign to acquire our most sensitive research. That is real, it’s a persistent challenge, and we need to stop it. And on that issue, we look forward, Mr. Chairman, to working toward a joint effort. 

But we cannot protect American research while the Administration is dismantling the very people and programs that protect it.

The President's own budget request proposed devastating cuts to the three agencies before us today, including 26 percent cuts to NSF’s research security office and NSF’s Inspector General, both of which help keep our research secure. 

The President proposed capping the “indirect costs” on grants at just 15 percent. This is money universities use to fund their research security efforts.

Meanwhile, DOGE fired every civil servant at NSF, NIH, and DOE that our scientists relied on to assess security risks. The Administration even fired every member of the board overseeing NSF.

You cannot claim the high ground on research security while firing the people who do it and cutting the programs that fund it. 

If you are serious about research security, you put our money where your mouth is.

But it goes deeper than budgets. The bigger question is why does the CCP want our research so badly?

Because it is the best in the world. America leads. We lead because of a formula that took generations to build: open research, the best universities, and attracting the world’s best talent.

That leadership is what the Administration is putting at risk. 

With the Administration’s relentless cuts to funding science [and] attacks on foreign talent, many top scientists are moving their research elsewhere or not coming here in the first place.

And due to federal funding cuts, the number of students admitted to Ph.D. programs this fall fell by 15 percent. 

And even while overall PhD enrollment is declining, China remains our top source of science doctoral students. 

Nearly 80 percent of America's billion-dollar startups were founded by an immigrant or have an immigrant as a key leader. 

If we turn these people away without exception – with visa crackdowns and a climate of suspicion – they won’t stop innovating. They’ll just do it somewhere else. 

And in the past year, that is exactly what we have seen: American scientists moving their labs to China, Europe, and beyond because the Administration cut off their funding.

Universities are already being defunded because of their perceived politics. 

And now OMB is proposing to hand the final say over federal research grants to political appointees.

Far too many American scientists have faced unfounded discrimination and xenophobia through the failed China Initiative, which left us weaker in our competitiveness and innovation.

It’s a false choice between being tough on China and protecting civil rights. 

We can have zero tolerance for CCP theft and zero tolerance for civil rights violations at the same time. 

So, the path forward?

First: Fund and staff research security.

Second: Protect what makes us great: our research funding, research environment, and attracting the world's best talent. 

Third, protect the civil rights of every researcher. 

Fourth, keep funding the world's best research. 

That is how we keep our research out of the hands of the People's Liberation Army. And that is how we make sure the next great discovery happens right here at home.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.

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