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The House Science, Space and Technology Committee is planning to hold a hearing on Thursday, Jan. 22 to discuss the progress the National Quantum Initiative Act has made since it was signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2018, according to three sources with knowledge of the plans.
House lawmakers are looking to hear from staff at NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Energy Department and the National Institute of Standards and Technology on the NQI and its role in future federal quantum information technology research and development work.
The witnesses include James Kushmerick, director of the Physical Measurement Laboratory at NIST; Saul Gonzalez, directorate head at NSF’s Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences; Mark Clampin, NASA Science Mission Directorate’s deputy associate administrator; and Tanner Crowder, the quantum information science lead at Energy.
The NQI initially allocated about $1.27 billion to federal quantum information technology R&D programming. Following its lapse in 2023, multiple bills have been introduced to increase federal investment in quantum technology and related sciences, and industry groups have voiced a need for renewed passage.
Last week, Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Todd Young, R-Ind., reintroduced the National Quantum Initiative Reauthorization Act. Though it shares many features with the original, the reauthorization bill would allocate more funds — nearly $1.5 billion.
Advancing and preparing quantum sciences, particularly quantum computing, have become national policy priorities and are expected to pose a significant threat to current cryptographic security schemes used to protect sensitive data.
Trump 2.0 has continued to prioritize quantum technology and science policy. The administration is in the process of crafting an executive action that is expected to update federal agency timelines to complete their migrations to a post-quantum resilient cryptographic standard.
Nextgov/FCW reached out to NSF, NASA, NIST, the Energy Department and the House Science, Space and Technology Committee for comment.
