U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, spoke at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) about the importance of sustained federal investment in scientific research and advanced manufacturing to maintain U.S. technological leadership. Cantwell, a lead negotiator of the Chips and Science Act, highlighted Washington State’s innovation ecosystem as an example for national growth.
“The point is, we need the Washington State ecosystem,” Sen. Cantwell said. “If America is going to compete with China, we need that innovation to be across the United States. We need to build the basis by which those innovative instruments and the structure of them exist in various places. This is why the tech hub idea in the CHIPS and Science Act became so popular with our colleagues and so popular overall.”
During her conversation with Sen. Todd Young at CSIS, Cantwell criticized previous efforts to reduce funding for scientific research. “What do we need to do to be smarter? One thing we don't need to do is to cut the scientific research budget in the United States,” she said. “The fact that the Trump administration, and DOGE and [White House Budget Director] Vought all wanted to cut that—and now we're back to flat funding, at least with our portfolio in the NSF and NIST—all of that is a big challenge.”
She also addressed concerns over tariffs imposed during past administrations: “And obviously, I don't agree on the tariffs,” she added. “The tariffs are really having an effect. Research takes years and years and years. So, if you create an exodus of researchers from the United States…it's a big mistake. Let's get those things right.”
Cantwell pointed out advances being made through artificial intelligence platforms at national laboratories and called for their broader use in fields like healthcare.
On international competition with China, Cantwell reiterated her call for stronger alliances among democratic technology leaders: “I definitely think we need to use our might to counter China, and the best way to do that is to create an alliance with other smart technology countries,” she said. “If you just took us, and Japan, and Europe and India and basically a few others and said, ‘Okay, we're going to say these are the rules of the road for technology: You can't have a government back door. You have to respect these IP rights. You have to do this.’ And the world should only buy from countries who meet these standards.”
A full transcript of Senator Cantwell’s remarks can be found HERE.
