Senate Supports Rubio Efforts to Protect American Research From China

I don't think anybody at this point is unaware that China steals the things that we in America innovate, our research, our ingenuity, our products, our secrets. They steal it.

So we're about to spend tens of billions of dollars on research. If we're going to do that, I think we should take steps to make sure the tens of billions aren't also stolen. It doesn't make a lot of sense, and most people would agree, to spend all of this public money on research without enough protections to keep the Chinese from stealing it.

So what this Motion to Instruct would do is ensure that the government undertakes a counterintelligence review to certify that entities that are getting this public money -- either through direct funding or through intellectual property developed as a result -- have national security protections against the theft of American research and resources.

What this would ensure is that there are protections in place to strengthen the bill's research funding accounting requirements in section 2307, and to ensure review of the funding for University Technology Centers [in section 2104].

If this bill is to truly be [the] America COMPETES Act, we need to make sure that America's funding, and grants, and other taxpayer resources are not going to be stolen by our adversaries to beat us using our own money.

I ask my colleagues to vote "yes" on the Motion to Instruct.

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