Senate hearing spotlights research-security risks at DOE national laboratories

At a public hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, senators and outside experts on research security described sustained risks to U.S. technology stemming from foreign recruitment and commercial transfer tied to work at Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories. Witnesses and committee members said research-security gaps have allowed adversaries to appropriate U.S. inventions and that Congress and DOE must strengthen safeguards while preserving beneficial scientific collaboration.

Chairman Lee opened the hearing by saying the DOE "oversees 17 national labs" and quoted Secretary Chris Wright’s recent confirmation remark that "we must protect and accelerate the work of the DOE labs to secure America's competitive advantage and security." He and other senators framed the hearing around alleged exploitation of academic and lab collaborations by the Chinese Communist Party and other adversaries.

The hearing featured three outside witnesses who previously served in or advised government: Paul Debbar, cofounder of Bohr Quantum Technologies and a former DOE undersecretary for science; Anna Pugliese, a visiting fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and a former National Counterintelligence Officer for East Asia; and Dr. Jerry Richmond, former DOE undersecretary for science and innovation and a professor of chemistry at the University of Oregon. Debbar and Richmond described…