Providing for Further Consideration of H.R. National Defense

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, in this era of great power competition, we are in a race for top talent, and our continued military superiority depends on scientific breakthroughs in innovation.

My amendment provides that if the Secretary of Defense determines it is in the national interest, it would allow a pathway to citizenship for the best foreign talent to work in the U.S. national security innovation base and on defense research projects. We want the brightest minds in the world working for us and not our adversaries. This amendment helps us in that race.

This Chamber, I should mention, has recognized the need to face this challenge before and during the consideration of the fiscal year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act. My amendment was passed on the floor with bipartisan support, and I hope we will do it again today.

The U.S. has less than 5 percent of the world's population, so the majority of the best scientific minds will undoubtedly be born outside the U.S. borders. So we enjoy world-class universities and an innovative private sector that attract talent from around the world in critical technologies like physics, computer science, and biotechnology; but our constricted pathways to residency and citizenship drive this talent into the arms of our economic competitors at best and our adversaries at worst. So we face intense competition from other countries who offer large research grants and expedited citizenship to lure this talent away.

In a world where a small group of driven visionaries can upend the status quo, losing these gifted individuals puts us in danger of chasing future technological developments rather than leading them.

My amendment is modeled after a 1949 law granting the director of the CIA the authority to obtain permanent residency for anyone deemed ``in the interest of national security or essential to the furtherance of national intelligence missions.''

So this idea is not new. Today, the Secretary of Defense has no mechanism to encourage immigration for researchers with technical or scientific skills vital to national security.

Under this amendment that I offer today, the Secretary of Defense will implement a competitive annual process to select the top 10 scientists with technological expertise that would advance the development of critical technologies aligned with the National Defense Strategy and the National Defense Science and Technology Strategy and recommend them to the Secretary of Homeland Security for proper, robust processing and vetting.

It is in our national security interests not only to have these scientists working on defense research on our behalf and their innovations within our economy, but also to prevent this talent from working for our adversaries' defense industrial base and economies.

This amendment has passed this Chamber twice previously as an amendment to both the fiscal year 2022 NDAA and to the America COMPETES Act. I encourage my colleagues to support this amendment, once again, to ensure our continued military and technological superiority.

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Mr. LANGEVIN. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time I have remaining.

We have before us a concept that already exists in law, that already has that authority with the Director of the CIA. This bill before us would allow this authority to be exercised now by the Secretary of Defense for only 10 individuals, I should say, and it waives no special vetting or security background checks. There would be thorough background checks before any pathway to citizenship would be given.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, there would be no passes given. It would be thorough background checks that would occur.

Experts agree that we must now keep the brightest minds working on our behalf or we risk ceding the commercial benefits of technological development, as well as sacrificing our military's technological advantage.

Our adversaries are focusing on closing the capability gap in critical technologies, and we must respond. They are not standing still. We need to continue to keep the technological edge that we enjoy here in our country.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support of this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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