U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, delivered opening remarks at a subcommittee hearing focused on the White House AI Action Plan. The hearing was part of the Subcommittee on Science, Manufacturing, and Competitiveness.
Senator Cantwell acknowledged the bipartisan efforts within the committee to advance legislation related to artificial intelligence. She highlighted that seven bills had passed out of committee but faced delays elsewhere. Cantwell noted that many priorities in those bills are reflected in the White House’s action plan, including education, training, capacity building, and coordination with agencies such as NIST and OSTP.
“Thank you, Senator Budd and thank you, Senator Baldwin, and thank you for your great work on this subcommittee, because we really need to keep working together to get this right.
“Director Kratsios, great to see you here. Thank you for your leadership, and I enjoyed our conversation and the follow up material that you sent – very, very helpful and illuminating as we continue to struggle through how the United States of America maintains our leadership in AI and yet also faces the challenges that we face around the globe.
“I want to, first of all, just thank everybody on this committee who worked in a bipartisan effort to get, I think, seven different bills out of the committee, unfortunately they were held up and it's good to see the [Action Plan] goes down that same list of issues: education; training; trying to build capacity; trying to streamline, both with NIST and the rest of OSTP, how we can continue to move forward in a very fast way.
“I come from a very innovative part of the United States. I think probably [the] largest data center that exists in the United States by capacity is in the Pacific Northwest. I think the cheapest rate [for] data centers is also in the Pacific Northwest, at Quincy, Washington, because of the low-cost public power. So I do want to, when we get to the Q and A, ask you about that part of the Executive Order, because in the Executive Order, you say: [O]ne of the urgencies that we have as a nation is if we want to be the leader in AI, we have to be the leader in our energy capacity to build data centers and maximize that.
“I also want to ask you, too, about yesterday's events. Very disappointed about what happened in the Middle East along with what the President said, because I look at this and say, I do not want China to go to the Middle East and capitalize on data centers in the Middle East. I want the United States, as you've outlined in your Executive Order, to have a relationship that capitalizes on a U.S. export stack and the ability for us to promulgate. It's kind of like an operating system. It's like the best of our technology being adopted in an international framework. And I'd like to really see that.
“I definitely want to see that, you know, I've called it a Tech NATO, where the best of the products and the export capabilities of the United States help us create standards around the United States and the world, but it also helps stop bad actors who may not have the same standards or may not have the same securities that we have in our system. So I very much appreciate the fact that you've included all of those issues including need for standards as a way for industry to move fast and capitalize on making those standards worldwide.
“I do very much support…[as] you have in executive order ways to think about next generation energy as well. We're very proud of what we're doing in fusion technology. We hope that we will somehow strike it big on one these applications that really does change race here. My colleague Senator Risch and I had national task force examine what those issues are so United States could move fast need supply chain supply chain materials so hope OSTP NIST Department Commerce would continue play very big leadership role there.
“So again thank you so much for being here lots discuss trying continue move forward legislative framework but appreciate those issues education standards technology innovation exports—you know creating U.S framework adopted globally—is direction need go And I very much appreciate as said my colleagues continued efforts push legislation done bipartisan fashion So thank you.”
Cantwell referenced technological infrastructure developments such as large-scale data centers located in Washington state’s Quincy area due partly to affordable public power resources available there.
She also addressed concerns over global competition regarding AI infrastructure investments—specifically expressing reservations about potential Chinese involvement with Middle Eastern data centers—and stressed her preference for American-led partnerships built upon domestic technology exports.
The senator further emphasized her support for continued federal leadership by agencies like OSTP (Office of Science & Technology Policy), NIST (National Institute of Standards & Technology), and Department of Commerce—especially regarding new energy technologies such as fusion research—and advocated for ongoing bipartisan legislative collaboration.
