Three senators want to create a federal agency to study how American innovation compares to China to prevent the U.S. from losing a competitive advantage on emerging technology.
The bipartisan proposal comes after Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s call for a China Competition Bill 2.0 last month. Portions of his previous legislative push were subsumed into the CHIPS and Science Act that President Biden signed into law last year.
Sen. Todd Young, Indiana Republican, worked alongside Mr. Schumer in 2020 and 2021 on legislation to counter China and is joining Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet of Colorado and Mark R. Warner of Virginia on the Global Technology Leadership Act to build a new federal agency.
“There is no single federal agency evaluating American leadership in critical technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum computing, despite their significance to our national security and economic prosperity,” Mr. Young said in a statement last week. “Our bill will help fill this gap.”
The federal government is not ignorant to the technological advances of major foreign powers. For example, the CIA created a Transnational and Technology Mission Center in 2021. It examines global issues affecting U.S. competitiveness, particularly for new and emerging technologies. Alongside the new tech center, the CIA announced in October 2021 it was also forming a China Mission Center to address the threat posed by the Chinese government.
Under the three senators’ proposal, the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy would help set priorities for the new Office of Global Competition Analysis. It would then partner with a federally funded research and development center, university or consortium of both to conduct its analyses. A press release from Mr. Bennet’s office touted a call for spending more money on analysis from the leader of Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.
“To defend our economic and national security and protect U.S. leadership in critical emerging technologies, we need to be able to take into account both classified and commercial information to fully assess where we stand,” Mr. Bennet said. “With that information, Congress can make smart decisions about where to invest and how to strengthen our competitiveness.”
Congress has access to information about U.S. research and development of emerging technology already at its disposal.
For example, Congress created the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence in a 2018 defense bill that published a more than 750-page report in 2021 advocating for spending billions more taxpayer dollars to avoid falling behind China.
Former NSCAI Executive Director Ylli Bajraktari is supportive of the bipartisan trio’s effort to create a new federal agency. In a statement shared by Mr. Bennet’s office, Mr. Bajraktari said the U.S. government needs to reorganize for America to remain the world’s leading tech power.
“The United States must meet this challenge by creating an office to conduct critical technology analysis and provide the president and Congress with recommendations to act,” Mr. Bajraktari said in a statement.
The total anticipated cost of the new federal agency is not yet fully known. The draft legislation directs the president to submit a spending plan for the new office to Congress before the office is created. The draft legislation said $20 million is authorized to be appropriated for the Global Technology Leadership Act in fiscal 2024.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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