funded by these television companies and more including ♪ ♪. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ support c-span as a public service along wit these other television providers. giving a front row seat with democracy. >> u.s. commerce secretary testifies on the president's 2025 budget requests for house appropriations subcommittee. she also answered questions on artificial intelligence regulation competition with china the inclusion of noncitizens on the u.s. census. it's just under two hours.

[background noises] quincy subcommittee will be in order. without objection the chair will authorized to declare a racist at anyob time. i want to welcome everyone to this morning's hearing. tour subcommittee members that are here. and to secretariat for beingse here with us as well. the department of commerce fiscal year 25 budget requests totals 11.4 billion which is

654 million or 6% increase. over the fiscal year 24 this includes initiatives and bolstering trade enforcement, and the patients in manufacturing technology, economic development and many t others. all initiatives that are vital to american prosperity. i am pleased to see increases requested for workforce development initiatives and strengthening the supply chain security. the department of commerce mission to spur economic growth and opportunities for all americans grows more and more important every day. we are facing foreign economic influences and challenges that

can only be by prioritizing domestic competition and american labor. from outbound investment strategies to improving industrial standards, the department of commerce is on the frontline in our fight to combat china economically. through hearings like this one, and a close examination of the budget priorities that you submitted, viacom along with my colleagues will ensure the department of commerce uses all of the tools and resources to take loan china directly. beyond international matters, the commerce department plays a significant role in economic expansion and prosperity within our nation's borders. my district is in the heart of appalachia and southeastern

kentucky. i have witnessed the distress causedi by thin turn of the col mining industry. i have seen firsthand the great things that can happen when we empower small and rural communities through job creation and economic opportunity. the economic development administration and its assistance programs encourage innovation by providing incentives for job creation and struggling communities. this year's budget also proposes investments in newer programs such as the re- compete pilot program the regional technology and innovation hub program. both programs aimed to create sustainable innovations to train

the next generation workforce. it is no secret of the americann economy was and continues to be built on an genuity. thinking smart and calculated risks. the federal government and in particularly the department of commerce should not stand in the way of hard-working americans. i look forward to hearing about how this years of budget requests and prioritizes american innovation and competitiveness. so, let me now recognize the ranking member of the subcommittee, mr. cartwright. >> thank you, mr. chairman and good morning to you and good morning to our witness. welcome honorable gina raimondo secretary of commerce. madam secretary do not think it's an exaggeration to say the department of commerce right now

is more central to our national interest than ever. it is responsible for a broader than ever set of priorities. your department is at the forefront of critical efforts to driving the bear could propose to push american technological leadership. you are responsible for an awful lot. overseeing billions of dollars to help expand access to broadband, maintaining export controls that protect our national security identify weaknesses in our supply chains, providing accurate and reliable weather forecasting, bringing good jobs to distressed communities. the chair and just mention the re- compete program for am also interested in that. jumpstarting our semiconductor manufacturing industry. conduct during an accurate census.

advancing the trade interest of american businesses and leading the way on safety and development for critical technologies like artificial intelligence. that is just a sample of your highest proposal work. looking forward to hear american manufacturing our supply chain and over all global competitiveness strong. the presence fiscal year 2025 budget request of 11.4 billion in discretionary for the department of congress represents an increase of 5.9% with the department and portion and diverse missions. all of which are critical for the success of american workers and businesses in the 21stt century. the request focuses on many of the department's needs and it was interesting to read the census request as a bureau prepares for the 2030 census. seems like just yesterday were

gearing up for the 2020 census. the department continues to implement key components of the bipartisanship science act and the eye iga the infrastructure investment and jobs active. programs under these acts will expand broadband access across the country and revitalize america'' competitive edge semiconductor research development and manufacturing. i look forward to hearing further about these issues and others for ongoing work in testimony today. thank you, mr. chairman i yield back. >> will not recognize our witness for an opening statement. without objection the written statement will be entered into the record. >> welcome to the subcommittee. >> thank you, good morning to all of you. special thank you to chair

rogers, ranking member cartwright thank you for your leadership and all the members of thein subcommittee for thank you for the opportunity this morning to discuss the president's budget. i want that they thank you for your strong support of the department. in a bipartisan way we have received excellent support from your committee and on to say thank you for that. implementing major initiatives. authorized by congress to the infrastructure investment and jobs act to breed the inflation reduction act on the chips and science act. thanks you and the funding you have provided pressing economic national security priorities. it is not an exaggeration to say the commerce department is doing more now than we ever have before. the budget request as you have said is for 11.4 billion in discretionary funding. 4 billion in mandatory funding

for fiscal 25. permit me too highlight just a few of our key priorities. first, budget positions america to prevent china and other countries from obtaining u.s. technology, capitol and expertise. threaten our national security. included 220 million-dollar increase for bif to expand export control enforcement 5 million for ita to address risks from outbound investment into sensitive technology in china. second budget promotes technological leadership we all know ai is the defining technology of our generation.

we are asking for $30 million for the ai safety institute. also money for nti a to establish ai in emergent policy lab. with ai we need to invest in go fast under the sink and keep a lid on the risk for the budget supports resilient supply chain for it includes an increase of $12 million in ita to support a supply chain resiliency office. it includes $37 million for missed manufacturing usa program and 175 million for manufacturing extension partnership. we cannot be a great country and have resilient supply chain. that is what the investments are for. provide resources with our

allies to advance our shared values and shape the strategic environment which china operates. we would have to outcompete china. we have to show up around the world. the budget includes $379 million for ita to expand u.s. exports and services invest in good jobs and equitable growth as the charm and a reference request for billet in mandatory funding for tech hubs to advance its mission of tech hubs, job training with a good jobs challenge foster geographic diversity and innovation. it also invest $80 million in the mvd aide to continue our

services for socially economic disadvantage businesses. the budget address climate change. it includes six and have billion dollars for noaa, including 2 billion for the nation's weather and climate satellites. 1.4 billion for the national weather service. 212 million for climate research. finally, the budget invest in our fundamental science infrastructure. the budget over $400 million and fundamental research infrastructure. science research and noaa and nti a. this includes critical investments in maintenance, renovations and improvements at our campuses. so in closing, i just want to echo what the chairman said in the ranking member said our work at the commerce department

focuses on strengthening america's competitiveness both at home and abroad so american workers, families and businesses can participate and prosper in 21st century global economy. most importantly protect our national security. i'm happy to answer any of your questions. >> thank you madam secretary. we will now proceed under the five minute rule for questions. i will begin by recognizing myself. madam secretary between each census the u.s. population grows and changes. therefore effective and efficient government requires high quality and objective sources of information.

how does the census bureau determine what questions will be included in the census? quick sink in for the question. we arec. gearing up for 2030 whh is closer than you might think. i am so proud to say we have unbelievably high quality data scientists, data stations, economists at the census. they are constantly in the process of using the best datasi science and statistics techniques to figure out how to ask these questions to get the besto information? fundamentally the census should have nothing to do with politics. it should be about getting the data so we have the best objective picture possible of all the people who are in america and every information that we can gather about them and their needs.

>> illegal immigration is out of control. there is a crisis at our southern border. just like you need to be an american citizen to vote, i think you should be an american citizen to be counted in the census. just like voting, census data has a direct impact on our representation. if a locality knows they can receive a greater representation in congress in greater or resources from the federal government. current pollard courage that locality to inflate its own census numbers? >> with a secretary like to comment? perks respectfully, sir i do not agree witho that.

the constitution is crystal clear. our job is to count all persons without regard to the immigration status. and as you said before very proud of the professionals who work at the consensus. honestly it my job is not to inject my political views of the president's political views or anyone's political views into the way they do their job. their job is to beat nonpartisan, collect the best data possible encounter every person. >> given china's increasing dominance in various industries, including technology i would hope the international trade ine administration is working towards a plan to prioritize national security concerns

alongside efforts to promote u.s. exports. and reduce the trade deficit with china. what measures are they taking to prevent the transfer of sensitive u.s. technology to china? >> think you were the question. this is probably the thing i spend most of my time on. which is making sure we do everything we can to deny china our most sophisticated technology.. working with ita we try to have a robust program for a very proud to say that in my tenure we have put more chinese companies on the entity list than in any other commerce secretary. last year we had more convictions of export control violations than ever before. we are constantly, i work every single day figuring c out how we

might tighten our controls to make sure china cannot get access to her most sophisticated ships, ai, quantum et cetera. the budget request additional funding for bias has been flat for two years. but licensing requests are going like this. the threat is going like this. the budget also request money for ita. we can get outbound investment screen to make sure u.s. money does not go to advance chinese capability and the sensitive areas. out of time i'll believe it at that but absolutely show the priority. ensure u.s.that businesses are not inadvertently supporting china's military ambitions? or engaging in activities that couldti pose a threat to u.s. national security? what steps are they taking to

strengthen the screening process and ensure compliance with export controls? >> as i said, we estimate the thing here that we watch out for mostly is a dual use. the technology that can be used in a commercial application. but also in the military. hard work of what we try to do. trying to figure what are commercially available technologies fight u.s. companies that china does not have but they want access to to advance the military. and so with constant vigilance constantly interfacing with u.s. companies, constantly gathering data and importantly enforcing under my leadership we have opposed the largest single syllable penalty ever for a company and seagate who went

around her export controls. we had more convictions of laughter than in the year before it's a combination changing the policy, working with companies but also being really serious about enforcement. >> thank you, mr. chairman. secretary raimondo you finish your opening statement rightly pointing out our top priority in the commerce department's national security and i agree with that. one to follow up on some questions that sherman had and the interconnected rapidly modernizing world, our biggest challenges to national security are often problems of economics and technology. two areas were the department of commerce leads. you have been using the three letters bias a lot.

a lot people are not familiar with that bias stance or bureau of industry ands security. i think we ought to say that hold title for people who do not know what that is. the bureau of industry and security. this year at your request includes $32 million increase in requests for 26 new positions. sii would like for you to discus how this a bureau of industry and security request helps address national security challenges customer because most of the threat posed by china's military modernization. >> thank you sir. industry and security was not very well known until the last handful of years. the reason is with what the chairman said the threat from china. you think national security, you might think doug fighter jets, i think semi conductors, g quantu, ai model weight. et cetera. what we are doing at the commerce department is

constantly studying the dual use technologies to figure out what do we have? where is china make certain china cannot access our technology for their military. so for example the budget requests there is $8 million for export control officers. we are going to go after the bad guys we need to be on the ground collectinge data to find them when they do an end run around export controls but we are asking three and half million for it systems. we need to know where they are at all times and by the way it's not just china. it's not just china. we find chinese and iranian equipment and drones in russia. in any event bureau of security is the leading edge of protecting the national security. the budget has been flat.

the threat is quadruple and i'm respectfully requesting additional monies. >> your request is noted. [laughter] madam secretary as the scope and complexity of the agency's work continues to expand, do you worry about being able to hire and retainab staff with the necessary technical expertise? what is being done to address this challenge? >> it is such a great question. i worry about it constantly. if we are going to compete, the u.s. government and seek top tech talent that there is. his wife for example i'm requesting money for artificial intelligence for the article: intelligent safety institute. if we are going to know what's going on the cutting-edge of ai and did the best scientists there are.

so yes, i worry about that being said and very proud of our track record. we just recruited someone from open ai to come and work for us he was a leading scientist there the chips team is run by some of the best semi conductor professions in the s industry. it is a daily challenge is why we are requesting funding. i will save been very impressed with the quality of people we've been able to h get. quick speaking of ai, what specific investments are you proposing?u >> in ai, we are asking for funds for the ai safety institute. which is to create standards for ai. everyone, including myself is worried about synthetic content. we want companies to watermark but is ai generate what is adequate watermarking we are going to build a team the ai

safety institute to develop standards so americans can no be safe we are also investing in scientists we are investing in policy people at nti aid to help us develop policies for ai. i will just say in this respect and very much looking forward to working with the congress. we are doing what we can do. but at the end of the date congress needs to legislate as it relates to ai. i look forward to supporting that effort. >> last question ai's safety institute will be part? >> yes progress national institutes for science and technology. >> but we have two nobel prize-winningg scientist. people do not understand how top-notch scientists are. >> thanknk you. i yield back.

>> mr. gonzales. >> think a gentlemen, thank you secretary. iran hates the united states and our allies like israel and ukraine iran is eating america's lunch. department of commerce forcing u.s. sanctions on iran. i am concerned reports the --radiant drones used in ukraine were determined to have been builtt with numerous components from american firms. tehran as proxies throughout the middle east are using drones with american-made technology to attack american personnel and our allies. what is the commerce department doing. >> listen, share your concern if you have any ideas of what more we could be doing i would like to hear them. when the war broke out the meat would put export controls in place against russia with 39 other countries they were effective they areco effective. part of why we know is because russia could not get ourselves they were tehran and china and now i see what you are seeing.

so we continue to tighten like we are constantly adding entities to our list. with respect to a rod with put together a task force with the d.o.j. and dhs to do everything we can to enforce our export controls i will be the first to admit there is more work to be done. what i would tell you is we are throwing every tool we have werr throwing out the problem. tightening theem actual policy controls some of the money i'm asking foror is for export contl agents. we have to be able to enforce these rules. and state vigilant on every it everysingle day for. >> i have some ideas i would love to bill to visit with you it may be a walk through making some of us come. i think we can follow up with that. >> great my next question asmy e continue to your concerns from rural communities my district is large in the state of pennsylvania. a large part off it isn't rural

communities. folks in southwest texas talk about the potential ability the communication providers in these areas per talk about their potential ability to participate in the agency's initiative the lack of it due to the large size of the areas. some states will require applicants to serve as we'll see challenges delivering services at a very low mandated rate to certain consumers. what is the agency done about these concerns? basically large areas from a very urban area. >> once again you guys are hitting all the topics that keep me up at night. my job at implementing the $42 billion is make sure every american has access. everyone we've never had a task like this before. we are massively focused on a rule that's of the subsidy is for. we are working very closely with your governor with the governor's team using our maps

provide subsidies to companies so that they in fact cover everyone including rural areas. what i can tell you, listen i do feel confident that that everything i know that we will get every community even most rural. we are going to have to be agnostic. it may beat fiber, with fiber preference it may not be it may not be affordable. we are going to make sure everyone has access that is affordable at the end of our implementation. every state has to submit a plan. that's different than pennsylvania differentnt than kentucky. before we are giving any money to your state we have to be satisfied that everybody will have access proposal rural broadband is a very serious concern of mine. i feel as if there's a greater divide happening in this country and it has nothing to do with the color of your skin or how

much money you have in your bank account press everything to do with where you live it. that is not fair to many people it is a difficult problem set aside an easy way to the wand, throw money at it and all of a sudden it goes away. very interested in how to incorporate technology it may be into speeding up this process? there's a lot of options. my last question is i want to ask we talked about earlier. i want to ask about the delays for certification to the agency's cryptic graphic modular validation program. this is sitting on an enormous backlog some going as far back as 2021 to certain components that go into civilian and department of defense systems for data security and encryption. what is your plan to address this backlog? hooks so let me get you a more detailed answer because as a former governor backlog to drive me crazy. i've got to get you the specifics but i promise i'll get

back to were excellent i appreciate your timeshare manual back. >> mr. laurel is a recognized ranking member of the full committee. >> thank you very much mr. chairman. i might ask unanimous consent to put my opening statement in the record. thank you. i want to welcome secretary at raimondo. i do want to say just about before your two questions i'm so delighted to have you here today the bite of ministration took over aan few years ago this natn really was an economic crisis in public health catastrophe. your leadership and help of this committee have improved our supply chain you have invested in our community, increased manufacturing, help small businesses grow. through the appropriations s process and legislative efforts,

like the chips and science act infrastructure that allows us to be able to do he said the outside to be competitive. i think you know a question of where to start with first breath i hope we will have a second round. that is outbound investments. we talked about this many times. think the review mechanism is critically important to the nation security. and americant investments are t advancing at the military you just put out technological our adversaries. we spoke at the hearing last year you discussed the importance of targeting this policy with investments that directly impact the national security. the administration since then has existed executive order exeo create outboundti investment program prohibits certain u.s. investment in countries of

concern and sensitive technologies. required notification for investments involving lower at riskof projects by understand treasury is leading the effort anderson international trade administration analysis and industry-specific technical expertise. this is critical to understand the security risks that are associated with rapidly advancing cutting-edgegy technology. the budget request has increased 5,000,012 positions within ita to create this to office, hire experts with the needed technicall expertise. as a treasury continues to work on regulations can you describe to what extent ita started supporting implementation of the outbound investment executive order in 2024? hooks thank you progressive

staff dedicated? >> yes we do. first of all thank you for your persistent focus on this issue. it's incredibly important it relates to what we were talkinge about technology is one thing we cannot let them have our money and know-how. we have decided to focus on semiconductors and quantum and ai. i get said treasuries in the lead for as i understand it by the end of this year the end of this calendar year the rule will be done. and so we can really start to implement it. what we are doing now in the meantime is building a team leave after 5 million to continue to study the industry. so treasury is obviously in charge of the finances which funds we are helping them to figure out which pieces of ai she would be most worried about? which kinds of companies who wouldbe most worried about?

you talk about quantum but is that actually mean? we are providing the commercial industrial technological know-how to match up against treasury financial know-how. we are already hard at work doing that. >> beyond what is included in budget. is there anything else that you can share with us about your resource needs? how ita will ramp up investments? what are the spaces where we might be able to help with? >> one is just data. the kind of investments we are talking about the not public stock market companies. it is a private money, it's hard to track candidly. any data that we can get access to to track these investments is

veryry important. some of it it's like buying it data sets. buying it systems. the other thing is people. we need to attract like we were talking about a before ai specialist, quantum specialist. not so much as scientists but partially minded people. former venture capitalist for coexample. which is hard. it is hard but we have done in the chips program. former investors and such. but that is or trying to do and that is the challenge. >> final point how will ita anticipate and identify technologies and products that may be needed to add to those covered by the program now? you and i've had a conversation and the past about critical minerals,er batteries, et cetera and so forth.

it will be the process looking at what we should add to this portfolio?o? >> one of the other budget requests i can't for the precise number but asking for additional moneyy for our supply chain management office. ich think it's about 12 millione are asking for inn ita. i would took alton of zygmunt is a start as secretary, we were using excel spreadsheets and getting on the phone with companies to do supply-chain tracking. and now we are building a team would i would be happy to model the product would build for anybody here. it's an it system we can track and monitor are most critical supply-chain vulnerabilities. we need to keep building that we need to be much more proactive, predicting where were going to

have a supply-chain problem but where is china poised to take advantage of us? that is the direction we are movinge into and set it just being reactive. were out of baby formula on the shelves reactive. >> thank you thank you chair for the additional time much appreciated. >> thank you chairman. thank you madam secretary for bingo the bureau of industry and security the commerce department export controls correct? >> yes rick is going to the guiding principles found on this website bureau of industry security should ensure the regulation apollo gates is not ande i quote impose unreasonabe restrictions legitimate international commercial activity." the bureau's guiding principles state they should avoid regulatory actions and igu quote compromise international competitiveness of the u.s. industry. you're asking for a budget

increase for the bureau of industry and security $32.4 million. also international trade administration whose responsibility it is to strengthen competitiveness of u.s. industry promoting trade and investment. we are asking $34.5 million for them as well. increases totaling over $60 million. i getdo the bureau of industry d security finalize its interim final rule personally extends violating both the previously outlined bureau guidelines by severely restricting american firearm and other component manufacturers from acquiring a necessary license to export their products for sale. already final rule duration of licenses will be reduced in force to oneou with the approval spotted case-by-case basis phallic implementation of this rule approximate 2000 active

licenses that were previously approved will be automatically revoked. compelling affected companies to submit new applications for export licenses so much for paperwork reduction act. in fact the national shooting sports foundation estimates this could have adverse economic impact of greater than $250 million for united six 96 firearmsinterests for theed g catalyst manufacturers suppliers and jobs that are supported across the country. chairman i request you notice consentth to submit to the recod firearm ammunition industry economic impact report by the national shooting sports foundation. this rule will cause massive confusion in the market will terminate current business bit of damage the goodwill of the brand of firearm manufacturers andoo illuminates future busine.

madam secretary, two and $50 million is a huge amount. would you consider the adverse economic impact would you consider that is compromising the competitiveness of the industry abroad? >> thank you for the question. i was at this national security it has to come before commerce. as for the hardest parts of my job. i tell semiconductor companies that cannot sell their chips to china denies them revenue. first and foremost its national security i want to say i hear you. i hear you and i appreciate your concerns the reality is it's a narrowly targetedow change to tighten up our license requirements. it is based upon good data we have around diversions, and we

are denying or making it very hard to sell guns 2:30 six countries that have undressed, huge drug cartels that could destabilize those countries are quite frankly our own country. every one of those people that have cert license revoked cand reapply it's going to be under stricter scrutiny but we have under diversion. >> and ma'am these are vetted countries. these were approved in the past. it's going to cost the united states arms industry tremendous amount of money. is there any communication regarding thiss rule?

>> probably? note decisions we make have and if you are insinuate lesser political elements of this? absolutely not we have data from the other places that say law enforcement agency confiscate guns in the 36 countries in connection with crimes, cartels, terrorist, their guns have been diverted they were sold to a legitimateol commercial user and diverted. that's americante national security. that's why we took the steps. by proof these are narrowly targeted as everything we do withet bias 10% of your gun experts. so i don't agree with you. i agree, i admit there is some commerce i think national security comes first. i do not agree it's large swaths of commerce dessert narrowly tailored to meet the security. mission work ma'am, it turned 50 million-dollar economic impact is not narrowly tailored.

i certainly cannot support cannot possibly support this increase in funding when bias comes out this type of a rule and i yield back. >> thank you very much mr. chairman. and ranking member cartwright for holding this important hearing for it madam secretary thank you for joining us today and forha your service and thatf your staff. we interact often with them in the whole operation has been very professional very helpful. i want to talk briefly about regional tech hubs. appreciate your leadership in the space which has been extraordinary. if you could help articulate you find ways to havee robust consistent predictable funding for the tech hub program over the nextra decade. it seems to me that's important not only toon aid this errors we

are going to invest in better track private capitol sub begin a great dealac about. could you talk about from the perspective of achieving the mission and attracting private capitol to many of these communities why that robust consistent finding is important for predictability? >> thank you congressman. i would say i cannot believe oak on this far to hear without someone asking about tech hubs and here's why. my entire time in government i have never seen a more popular program on a bipartisan basis and rural communities. it is unbelievable to me it is,a great program we have 400 applications asking for about $2 billion.l we will have the money to make half a dozen tech hub investments. thirty or $40 million.

of the 400 we identified 31 that we thought were really the best every single one of those is worthy of funding but due to the fundingwo constraints and eda we will do six -- 10 investments. this is necessary for national security i can do everything possible in the world with bureau of industry and security to deny china. the weight we will beat china is by out innovating china. that means tapping into the technology resourcesnt and talet in every nook and cranny of america including by the way chairman rogers and in a rural country. kentucky has a great tech hub proposal. i do not have them all memorized. in all of your districts or states of putting great tech hub

programs. silicon valley, boston, new york city do not have a monopoly on great talent great ideas and great technology. the whole point of tech hubs is to get outside of those communities and consistently fund innovation in america to make a stronger to outcompete the world. the budget asks for additional funding for that. i respectfully request that additional funding. it will make america stronger in every way possible. >> i appreciate that i'm not sure if i get points for me the first person to ask if a judgment ledger that would be great. i went to turn quickly to ai. we talked about a fair amount i've introduced legislation that would prohibit the disclosure of nonconsensual ai deep a fake and pornography which as it turns out this is really troubling, 96% of deep effects on lines are pornographic or intimate in

nature.e what a really impressed by the ai safety institute is i believe part of this is to look at content authenticity detection which is really important people can be certain or have some degree of confidence what they're looking at is actually real is that adapted or faked in some way. could youes talk a little bit about what you anticipate or what do you envision doing to be able to identify that? >> thank you for your legislation. it is really scary and unbelievable to see some these deep fakes. i'm sure you guys have seen them. so what we are going to do in the budget request as a couple of things but one, develop the science to be able to identify what is authentic versus what is ai generated. but two, i think we need to get

to a place and we will need congresses help to do this. or we require companies to identify is this ai generated content? or is this real content? they will do that by some process of watermarking. what we are going to have to do is figure out what is adequate watermarking? so that it is all about trust ai is exciting. we can cure cancer faster create medicine faster but people have to trustas it. so we are going to develop standards around synthetic content and watermarking so it individual when they see it will know is it fake or is it real? and if it is a watermarked fake or real? they can trust in that watermark. >> i appreciate that i know my time is up. we also need to save the data sets used to train ai models. i don't think there's enough

conversation around i looked interact. mr. chairman, thank you and i yieldan back. >> thank you for being hereou today. i'd first like to give you a compliment restricting sale of chips from intel to response to a letter from senator rubio and representatives to phonic the turnaround that was fantastic. as well as using an tia for a reported $20 million in grants to offset what is done. they are real threat and have been for 20 years. i think we are realizing that. in in the south china sea. can you describe for me exactly approximately how much of the world's commerce goes through the south china sea? sec. raimondo: massive amounts.

technically, i am not allowed to talk about any particular license revocation. however, back to our conversation, huawei >> as we get more data around our threats we -- we make changes to tighten the screws including revoking licenses that haveve been previously given, without commenting on those two companies specifically, i just -- i guess i want to reassure you we are constantly on it tightening screws where we need to e including revoking license. i don't have a number for you but -- a third. >> it's about a third. >> massive amounts of commerce. >> and that is the vicinity of taiwan. can you very briefly describe for me what happens if china invades taiwan and locks down commerce and takes over tmmc? >> it would be absolutely devastating. >> how devastating? >> well, right now i'm not

commenting on whether that's going to happen, if it's going to happen but what i can tell you is right now the united states buys 92% of its leading-edge chips from tsmc in taiwan. >> that's because they are two generations ahead of anything that we can build here in the united states, is that correct? >> no, no. they are vastly had anything we are doing in the united states, however, the announcement tsmc in arizona, to build the most sophisticated stuff. >> until then strategic asset in taiwan which makes it essential for us to defend thus out china sea and taiwan, not just one agree?would you >> i would agree, yes. >> moving on from that on the chips issue, we are finding that chips from north korean drones being used by russia to attack ukraine have american chips in

it -- in them. what is bis doing to stop that flow? it appears they can use what we think are harmless commercial grade chips to use for lethal purposes around the world at a time thatd looks like 1940. can we be doing more or are you that you caning and that slips through, how does that work? >> a few things. one, the fact that they have to use chips from breast pumps, refrigerators is because initial controls worked. we areau denying the sophisticad stuff which slowed them down hugely and song they are going o do what you're doing which is, quote, unquote commodity chip and gerryrigging their

equipment. for example, when we find out that a chinese company is going around our expert controls to russia, we put that company in the entity list. when we find out, i was telling you someone before, we created a task force with dhs and the toj to help us identify and prosecute countries or panes that two around our export controls. if you have ideas of more you think we can, to i want to hear them. i think we are i think to everything that we can with the resources that we have but it's -- it'sit massively frustrating and angering when you see russia to what they to and work with folks like china to get around our export controls. >> i know you're i think to the best you can to and especially in the national security realm, i appreciate -- thank you for fascinating testimony, mr. chairman, i yield back.

>> thank you. first thing i think you're doing a great job. keep i think to it. you have different areas that you're involved in and you're coming together as a team for america, it makes a difference. first thing i also want to thank you for designating baltimore as a tech hub. we are very excited to go after, total 10 billion over the next 5 years. president and ceo of the university of medical center as well as chair of the greater baltimore committee's board of tractors said the application reflected the collective belief and the potential of predictive health technologies to revolutionize our industries and elevate entirely community. i've spent close to 21 years in congress advocating for national security. when i was in leadership on the intelligence committee, chairman, i worked to keep hauwei equipment out of the united states systems.

we knew that hauwei was a back door threat that could cripple the u.s. if we were to put in situation and it almost happened with the governor of texas brought them into the united states for acting for a long time we knew china spoke from us. they were taking everything from fertilizer to advanced technologies. the treats that come from the stealing of u.s. technology is great, look at china's space program. we have to do everything we can to protect these technologies. we have to protect them from our adversaries as part of commerce is on the front lines.

we need to make sure the department of commerce has the tools, resources like our other frontline defender in the department of testifies. first, we can always give you money and manpower but what technology tools do you need to work smarter like supply chain, mapping, et cetera. second, how is the commerce working with the fbi, department of homeland and what are we talking about here as balance between enforcement and helping the economy. what -- what we have here is a boeing paradox, what happens if we are in a situation that's more aggressive with china? i talk about how you balance our national security and economic need. >> okay. >> i will to my best.

[laughter] >> first off all, i'm familiar with tech hub, doesn't mean it'll get funded but i'm familiar wit. i think it's excellent. >> it makes me a little excited to say that. >> and the governor called numerous times so secondly, we do need people, some of it is just human beings to do inenforcement, right, the conversation we just had, we are trying to cover the world here, so yes, we work with the fbi, yes, we work with the intelligence community, yeah, putting efforts, several new efforts with the doj, runs enforcement comes from doj but werc do need more manpower to yr point. the amount of information

available and also we need to use ai so we need to buy products that are ai enabled that allow us to scourer every day all over the world and every piece of data public and private to tell us what's really going on. so that is what we need. here is the one thing i would say to you, you mentioned boeing. we aren't trying to cut off all trade with china. we are not trying to cut off all tech trade with china. we are going to continue to sell them and that's good for america's economy, semiconductor chips, all kinds of technology and the reason is because, you know, they make a lot, they make a lot themselves, they can buy a lot from the rest of the world. we just need to focus on the choke point technologies, things that we have that they can't otherwise get access to, not commodity type goods and it makes it a little -- it's more

doable if you can identify what are the choke points and focus on that and work with our allies, work with the japanese and the dutch, for example, in semiconductors to fully completely deny china to slow their military down and i think that's important. we need to focus after their military capability. i will tell you, we've controlled almost 700 types of dual use items to russia to the questions before and we are constantly adding, i think, we've added almost 100 chinese entities to the entity list because they are trying to aid and abet russia going around our export controls so this really is hand to hand combat every day. we have to get up and go at it every day and the resources i'm asking for will help us do a better job.

>> i yield back. >> mr. klein. >> thank you, mr. chairman, thank you madame secretary for being here. >> good morning, i want to talk about which generally allows federal contractors to take ownership of patents on inventions created with federal funding as you know the federal government has the power to march in and grant compulsory licenses to third parties in some circumstances. on december 8th of last year, issued a draft framework to provide guidance to federal agencies on what to assays on considering whether to exercise margin authority explicitly included prices is a factor in 1980 with strong bipartisan support. the authors have stated that the law makes no reference to a reasonable price that should be dictated by the government and at this omission was

intentional. >> the document to which you're referring is nonbinding. it's interagency memo for guidance which is just that. all of thisci is a balancing te. the president has rightly focused, excessively, ebbing trially on bringing down the cost of pharmaceuticals and bringing down the cost of medicine ands drugs, successfuy but i don't want you, i don't want to give you any impression we stand strong of ip protection. >> over the past decades, patents have become a focal point of controversy. the european courts in germany issue injunctions against u.s. companies such as wi-fi which da not align with the practices in

the united states, injunctions don't serve to address harms but instead to compel companies to agreeex to high loyalty fees. the recent establishment of patent court in europe poses increased risk that injunctions would have broader implications across multiple countries in europe. given the significant impact of the legal standards on u.s. businesses, can you explain the administration's stance on the proposed eu regulation and how it plansit to stand up for u.s. companies in b the face of companies like hauwei and others who engage in patent modernization? >> i will do it and maybe you and kathy and i could have a phone call and go into the details. >> that would be great. >> as the president's adviser on spectrum issues ntia plays a

critical role the future couldn't to advance developing 5g technologies but at risk of falling behind adversaries like china due to gridlock on spectrum. do you agree that the united states must restore the fcc's auction authority and when it does so identify a pipeline of spectrum that can support commercial innovation and u.s. leadership? >> i do. here is what i think. certainly we need to restore their auction authority. balance whichs a isis to say we support a ntia studying for spectrum, seeing what could be made available and looking at maybe spectrum sharing, we can't -- dod needs to do what it needs to do its mission and a lot of the spectrum is really important. so-duh i strongly support figuring out how we can find somenc spectrum to advance commercial innovation without ever impairing their mission and i think it's possible. by the way, here is what i also

think. we can't think of national security so narrowly. i said this before, like, national security isn't just missiles,s satellites, et cete, it's also our ability to outcompete hauwei, our ability to outcompete china and so if you look at the amount of mid band spectrum available say in china versus here for commercial sector, we get a lot of catching up to do. so i think it's complicated and i don't want my comments to be interpreted as saying, you know, go take from the dod whatever we need but i do think it's a discussion we have to have and we absolutely need their option authority reauthorized. >> thank you, one more.

>> so can you commit to approving a state plan that complies with the prohibition itand specifically approving virginia's plan submitted to ntia? >> i cannot commit to the last one, i will submit to the first one. these are super complicated, they'll be more next week and more the following week. we are getting our fly wheel going. ly look in on virginia when i go back this afternoon. what i can promise you we aren't regulating, we are not telling any state including yours if you don't provide at x dollars we are not going to, you know, give you the money.

the statute requires us to have low cost operations. so we are obviously pushing states to make sure they're providing low-cost options. i will tell everyone here that, you know, by the end of this year, by the fall i'm pushing the team to have all of these plans approved. i meet with them every week to say where are you ande how to o faster and and look in on your plan. >> thank you, i yield back. >> thank you secretary raymundo for your tremendous work and for being here today. i wanted to go back to the citizenship question that was mentioned earlier as you know well and you alluded to the 14th amendment of the u.s. constitution states that representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to respective numbers counting whole number of

persons in each state. is there any agency in the federalep government that keeps track of noncitizens? >> you have stumped me congresswoman. >> certainly no my permit, no. for. >> why is the practice of counting every person living in each state needed to produce accurate and full census? >> because as you well know and every governor knows and i know from being governor, how much housing is required in a particular state, how much, you know, how many people are going to s be in the schools and thats why i bristle at any political interference frankly from either side as it relates to the census.. it's like just theke facts, ma'.

so we have experts, collect as you say follow the constitution every person, undercounting, undercounting is a problem because it's inaccurate picture of what's goinggo on in every state and we are find of public safety services are needed, what kind of educational services are needed, if people are afraid, if people are afraid because of their immigration status to talk to the census counter we are not going get accurate number and that inaccuracy prevents us from doing the best job we can at running government at the state level and the federal level. >> and if we were to violateat what the constitution has charged the census bureau to do, would that potentially affect the amount of federal funding that a state could receive? >> absolutely, yes. >> thank you. i wanted to also thank you for

your department's recent action onon regulating licenses for firearms experts. i know that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are extremely concerned as we are about the threat posed by transnationalnt criminal networs and adversarial governments andd i want to ask if this rule will keep american guns out of the hands of drug trafficker. i will say i was recently in costa rica, a region of great instability and the president, democracy and develop their economy and that's good for the united states. we o are doing this not for

political reasons but for our own policy. >> will this rule decrease the number of american guns in the hands of foreign terrorists and transnational criminal organizations? >> yes, we believe that it will. >> finally, how will the funding that the department of commerce has requested for fiscal year 2025 enable the bureau of industry and security to continue its work of protecting our national security especially as it relates to gun violence? >> we are asking for additional funds for more analysts, more

technologists, more data sets, more technology and more enforcement agents. so, you know, we can have the best policy in the world but if we don't have enough people to enforce it, we are not going to be effective. >> thank you, i yield back. >> mr. garcia. >> thank you, mr. chairman. on the census conversation i agree everyone should be counted for the purposes of infrastructure and public safety but not for the purposes of representation either at the state level assemblies or in the house of representatives which is currently it does wag the dog in terms of representation and i think that's the point of what we are trying to do. madame secretary you and i share the aspirations with reciprocal trade with china. i agree we can't cut all trade with china.

would love to keep those conversations going off online and figure out how to help you in that regard. that's a broader conversation. the former program director in me can't help but look at chips act as a very massive program that should have program management reviewss. on a regulr basis. this is probably one to have forums where we get to do that so i'm going to ask you some questions. there's indices, spi and cpi schedule performance index, cost performance index, the original budget of chips was roughly $280 billion and now we are approaching about the two two-year anniversary of the passage of chips. we didn't really have aniv objective end state goal in terms of dates but we all kind of understand the 2027 is an important kind of calendar line

in the sand relative to the -- the highest risk potential of china invading taiwan. so with those numbers and that paradigm, how are we doing from a program management perspective, are you on schedule, are you on cost and before you answer, i want to overlay the feedback that i'm getting from folks in silicon valley and smaller mom and pop shops in southern california. they don't feel like we are going fast enough and they feel like they are being overregulated and they feel like theyqu are overlying, other requirements and specs that have nothing to do with the technology that have nothing to do with the performance or the construction of facilities, there are actual dei metrics being imparted on these contracts and track as conditions of awards, nipa issues and environmental issues

thator continue to get worse and deeper. there are some companies that are having to retroactive i will go back and show compliance to davis bacon labor policies that they would otherwise have not done and construction not done by construction union labor organizations. you're pushing a lot of smaller companies away with this -- these regulatory requirements from participating. this is exactly what we were afraid of happening and you and i appreciate all the time that you spent explaining the nexus to dod making sure we are satisfying the requirements, i would like to take that conversation offline and follow up but talk about the health of the program in terms of metrics, are we on schedule r we on cost, how do we go faster, these barriers too speed are real and how can the contracting officers value speed as much as they value other things maybe such as

dei or some of these labor policies requirements being enforced. you can comment on that. >> great, thank you, on reciprocal trade one of the things that we did recently was through bis, connected vehicles, you can't drive your tesla to the airport if beijing. you you can't drive american made in certain areas in china. so what fair is fair, so what we are saying, we are concerned about chinese connected vehicles on the roads in the united states not for, you know, tariff and such but economic disparities but data, think about the data. >> like electric buses being in plant 42 being made by a chinese company would bee a problem -- >> collecting data on the driver, what they say, where they go, their driving patterns,

so just a second to let you know i am trying to move out on some of these reciprocity ideas that we've been discussing to protect americans. >> great, thank you. >> look, on chips, here is what i will say, i think we are on path' that's the bottom line. you say we are approaching the two-year anniversary. i had six months before the two-year end anniversary. >> yes. >> we have put out -- i started with nothing. i know of 200 people, amazingly talentedco people, you're welcoe to come meett them and we have put out $29 billion, we've been on roll recently. i know people were frustrated. in the last three months we have done, i think, 7 or 8 big deals putting out nearly $30 billion all to the leading edge providers to the conversation we had earlier, tsmc has committed

to build 3fabs including two i nanometer chips in the united states, samsung is included, leading edge plus research and development plus packaging, micron will be at scale, so i think, look, i know i have to go fast but it's much more important that i get it right. the metric i look at is will you be making 20% of the world's leading edge chips in the united states by 2030 and i say yes. i think we can. with respect to the smaller companies, it's challenge but we are trying. we have put out application for smaller companies to apply so i can get the information, put the word out to constituents, it's harder for companies to interact with government, specific application, we are going to do another one, 50 million-dollar research and development that only small companies can apply

to. with respect to nipa, look, it's tough. i have a whole team that is helping companies work through the nipa issues. we are getting there but it's a e.challenge. davis bake is in the law, it's in theyi statute, we will compl, we are complying and i don't think, look, every condition that we are putting in there some related tofo workforce, soe related to child care, some related to dei, i can honestly tell you congressman, it's designed to make sure these projects are successful. they need to find workers. we are pushing the companies to broaden the way they think about workforce, the way they train workforce so they can have the talent they need on the timeline that they need it. so this is a big discussion and i would be very happy to follow up with. you. >> thank you, fair enough.

>> second round but i ask unanimous consent of all members that we limit remarks to 3 minutes. so madame secretary, we will get you out of here. >> appreciate that. >> course of time. >> i recognize myself for 3 minutes. space commerce. rapidly growing thousands of new small and medium-size satellites being deployed to earth orbit yearly. this office has been designated tras the organization for trackg

and managing those assets. there's thousands of them. what will the space commerce unit, the department of commerce do to count these satellites? >> yeah. >> there are so many of you have and i think of air traffic control space. another 75 million in this budget to continue that, it's on track, it is on track. we have an excellent person running the office of space commerce and that's ourth primay focus right now is developing this tracking system space

satellite activity is. >> well, space commerce is -- has been giveno the mandate to begin to track those assets existing and new ones to ensure that they don't prevent the deployment of new systems and perhaps more importantly that they do not inhibit civil and other space satellite deployment for nasa missions. tell us how this is going to happen? this is a big task. >> it is a big task. it is a big task. >> space commerce and critical that trust leads in commercial

space. fundamentally what we have to do is make sure that the u.s. leads in that area, developing this space situational awareness system which we are doing and the space trafficco coordination system enables us to do that by if you keep track of everything it reduces collisions and reduces problems and create safety and quite frankly it's an incentive for investors to invest in u.s. commercial space industry if we have this space trafficking system effective. >> and one complicating factor is we are going to deorbit the international space station and many commercial providers now on that station will be looking for

a new home and lower the orbit which complicates even more, is that right orth wrong? >> that's right. it's a balance that we have to balance these interests. >> well, thank you talk about the united states economic development administration which is housed in the department of commerce. e.d.a. has an important role in spurring job creation and economic diversification in communities that have suffered decline and stagnation as the industrial economy rapidly evolves. that's true in my district. you know that in northeastern pennsylvania our economy has been bumping along since the decline of coal mining, since nafta, which bestowed benefits and burdens across our nation. but unevenly.

we suffered a lot of manufacturing loss in northeastern pennsylvania because of nafta. and legislative efforts since then have not fixed that problem. e.d.a. is one of the solutions. i'd like to hear, by the way, thank you for visiting pittston. northeastern pennsylvania. you know the mayor has done amazing things to bring back that small city. and we want to do more. i'd like to hear broadly what key economic development needs are you hearing most often as you go around the country visiting places like pittston? secretary raimondo: i had fun going. i enjoyed the visit. >> what i hear and it's across all of your states, nafta affected communities where i'm from in rhode island what i hear.

manufacturing. there's something special about manufacturing jobs. they are high paying. they don't require a college degree. there is a job for everyone in the facility. people say why can't we make more in america? that's why it's so exciting for me when i'm out in arizona where i recently was with tsmc and intel. it's amazing. tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs are brought about by the chips act. i hear the constant need for retraining which is why i created the good jobs challenge when i became secretary. people want to work. put yourself in the shoes of a 42-year-old woman who has been a retail clerk her whole career. or a waitress and got put out of work in covid. she can't retire. she wants to work. but she needs skills. she needs digital skills or a.i. skills or something. a desperate need for retraining.

a desperate need to invest in infrastructure that will attract companies. you see that in pittston or wherever. sometimes you might have a vacant mine or manufacturing facility. they have to be resuscitated to new uses. and that takes money. e.d.a. spends money on all of that. we are investing in infrastructure, job training. the recompete program. recompete is about helping the most distressed communities. those are the ones that are the hardest and take a lot of investment, but it's worth it. mr. cartwright: i yield back. chair rogers: mr. cline. mr. cline: thank you. madam secretary, i'm concerned about the department's handling

of long-standing issue over imports of vietnamese plywood into the united states. two companies with operations in my district have been assessed, countervailing duties over imported vietnamese plywood in 2021, 2022 even though the department previously assured importers that plywood imports with a vietnamese core would not be subject to such duties. retroactive decision in 2023 has had negative impacts on u.s. companies which imported this product. in good faith. and moreover these companies independently audited proved the plywood originated in vietnam and not china which was the target. the department refuses to consider such proofs and merely relies on the failure of vietnamese exporters to satisfactorily respond to commerce questionnaires. the ultimate issue is where did the product come from? vietnam or china? this matter is currently in pending administrative review with a decision expected by july 30. i would ask you to hopefully accept and consider the independent audits to resolve this matter. if you have any response.

secretary raimondo: a couple things. this is a quasi-judicial process with which i can't interfere. the concern which we see a ton of is, it is china dumps into vietnam. vietnam into the united states. it's an end run around our anti-dumping regulations. it's appropriate for me to look at it and certainly have my staff reach out to you. we are not -- we don't want to hurt your local company. we do want to hurt china trying to get around our rules. mr. cline: completely agree. i ask for a fair evaluation of the evidence being -- secretary raimondo: i will do it. mr. cline: with regard to counterfeit chinese vapes, in the december 2023 press release announcing f.d.a. and c.b.p.'s joint seizure of illegal e-cigarettes with a retail value in excess of $18 million.

the fda said many of them were intentionally misdeclared with -- as various items like toys or shoes and listed with incorrect values. if shipping containers full of illegal e-cigarettes products from china either as to the -- miss declared as to the country of origin to avoid the china tariff for product category to avoid the vapor tariff, this would represent criminal violations of custom laws on an industrial scale. it would also amount to massive fraud on the u.s. treasury in terms of lost tariff revenues. i am assuming you are aware how big this problem is. what steps have you taken to address the problem and recover those lost revenues? secretary raimondo: it's detail. i can get back to you. that's mostly a c.b.p. issue. we work closely with c.b.p. we furnish them the data we need and cooperate with them. but this is what you are talking about is primarily their remit. mr. cline: i yield back. chair rogers: ms. delauro. ms. delauro: thank you.

with regard to dumping i think closing the loophole is something that ought to be considered as well. i think that's within the ustr. with regard to vet, and talking about countering unfair trade practices, what role does the department have in confronting china's manufacturing dominance through trade policy? working with ustr to address trade issues that have concern with allies, partners, and adversaries, how if at all is the department working with ustr? secretary raimondo: we work hand in glove with them on so many issues. i want to say i'm very concerned about this. it's no secret that china's economy is growing slower than it has and that they have wanted it to.

it's also no secret that their strategy is crank up production. they now represent about 30% of the world's manufacturing output. they could decide to go to 60% to keep chinese people working, which would be disastrous for the global economy. i worry greatly, congresswoman, about the possibility that they do that and dump their cheap products whether it's electric vehicles, legacy semiconductor chips, critical minerals. the list is long if they crank up production and dump it on the world market. we are working very closely with ustr to try to identify where are we most vulnerable and what actions could we take? one thing specifically that we have done at commerce, we just used the defense production act to do a mandatory survey about legacy semiconductor chips proud -- produced in china. we are trying to find out where

are these legacy chinese chips in u.s. supply chains, and do we see any evidence of china dropping the price? which would distort the market and make it impossible for u.s. chip companies to compete. i'm laser focused on that area in particular. ms. delauro: emerging markets as well. exporting it, manufacturing, and technical standards for emerging markets and certain technology efforts as you pointed out. information, communications, advanced manufacturing. and obviously you are aware of the challenge and take it from your comments that other departments are preparing and designing what structures you need. and again what resources you may need to be able to counter. secretary raimondo: that's exactly right. ms. delauro: the $4 million for global markets, the i.t.a. requests that. which markets do they see

as strategic for this purpose? how would that be addressed? secretary raimondo: africa. i was just in kenya. extremely important. china's all over africa. we have to show up. certain areas of southeast asia. ms. delauro: i yield back. thank you. chair rogers: mr. clyde. mr. clyde: thank you, mr. chairman. madam secretary, do you think the number of illegal aliens that were counted in the 2020 census had an impact on the apportionment of the house of representatives that we have today? secretary raimondo: i don't think so. but i don't have a great answer for you. mr. clyde: ok. can you get me a great answer? secretary raimondo: what do you think? mr. clyde: i think it did. it really did. if we are looking at over 20 million illegals in this entry, then i think it had a

significant impact. secretary raimondo: my job, though, isn't -- mr. clyde: you mentioned that the census is counting the whole number of persons in each state. i agree with you. it's what the 14th amendment says. it also says in section 2 of the 14th amendment when it talks about representatives in congress it says the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the portion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens, 21 years of age in such state. now, i know, the 19th amendment added both male and fee. -- and female. the 26th amendment lowered the age to 18. the 14th amendment still says male citizens is the basis -- excuse me citizenship is the basis of representation. i'm grateful to take a clarifying action this week to prevent the marginalizing of citizens voting by finally requiring a citizenship question on the decennial census. and by modifying the house of representatives apportionment to be based only on united states citizens.

i look forward to voting for h.r. 7109, the equal representation act which i'm a proud original co-sponsor. can you tell me a little bit about the census bureau's annual business survey? what is the cost of that annual business survey? why did it go from five-year in 2017 to one year? secretary raimondo: i could probably get you the cost. i'll have to get back to you on the exact cost. i do want to say something to your last question. the census' job is to identify persons living in this country. and i know from experience, i lived it, when you start to ask people about their immigration status, they then don't answer the door and won't be counted. it will lead to inaccurate data. mr. clyde: i appreciate that. i'm going -- moving on to the census bureau's annual business survey. my next question to you is how

much money is spent on follow-up with those businesses that do not initially respond to the census' annual business survey? do you have that? secretary raimondo: i don't. but i can get it to you. a great deal of money. we try to get everyone to respond. mr. clyde: how do you determine who you ask? secretary raimondo: you have to ask the scientists. to be clear, i don't interfere with any of this. this is statisticians figure out what's likely to lead to the best outcomes. i defer to their judgment. mr. clyde: then i can be assured that you'll get me that information. secretary raimondo: 100%. mr. clyde: thank you very much. i yield back. chair rogers: ms. meng. ms. meng: thank you, mr. chairman. i look forward to voting against the bill that is called the equal representation act but literally does the opposite. and to pretend that noncitizens do not live in our communities, that's exactly what this bill

would do, pretend, will only, as you mentioned, madam secretary, instill fear, force people into the shadows, and take critical federal funding away from every single state, red, blue, purple, rural, urban, suburban. that's not the point of the census to count like this. in 2018 the previous administration repeatedly tried and attempted to add a citizenship question to the census, which i am proud to say that senator hirono and i and others fought against in congress and subsequently was blocked by the supreme court. i wanted to ask a quick question about the minority business development agency which offers many programs and services that held businesses to grow and be competitive. i represent a diverse district in queens, new york, where many minority-owned businesses are in

many ways the backbone of our community. secretary raimondo, how does the fiscal year 2025 budget request ensure that those who most need the assistance and resources can continue to access them? secretary raimondo: thank you. we have asked for an additional $12 million in mbda to do that. our mission is to help business owners who are economically and socially disadvantaged, including asian americans, members of your district and all of your districts. we are looking to add more offices, more staff, more service offerings so we can be more available these small businesses. ms. meng: thank you. i yield back. chair rogers: mr. ellzey. mr. ellzey: thank you, mr. chairman. madam secretary, people of the

sixth district, very rural district, very worried about in many cases the debt of our nation being $34 trillion. a lot of the budget requests we have asked for -- you asked for here are increases and some new agencies particularly the supply chain resiliency, $37 million. offline, not necessarily here, please give me a justification for that and what the office of supply chain resiliency intends to actually do. once a bureaucracy grows it's very hard to dial it back whenever it's not needed. i believe in the market. i'm curious how this will help the market. so later on, please send me the answer. i want to talk about china again and the threat we are facing from four dictatorships, iran, china, north korea, and russia. the chip issue -- it seems like china is controlling all the

strings. everything that they do in this country technologically is a military operation from the ccp. and everything they do is a study on the pattern of life. everything's got a transponder in it from the big cranes in the ports to the box cars that dry -- try to dump, which we successfully stopped to the technological coming in is a pattern of life study, which is what you do whenever you are going to study how to best attack a nation. we are already in a proxy war in china with them using cartels to kill 200 americans every day as an equalizer for their one child policy which is about to send them into oblivion. can you describe for me what you think the threat is from the electronics from china in the united states. secretary raimondo: couple things, i was very pleased to see congress take action on tiktok. that's an example of tiktok being on the phones of hundreds of millions of -- tens of millions of americans. collecting all that data. that was one thing.

secondly, one thing we are doing is looking into electric vehicles, connected vehicles. chinese electric vehicles on our roads at scale. could be collecting massive amounts of data on americans. who they are, where they go to, what they say in their car, patterns of driving. we have opened an investigation at the commerce department looking at that. also very much looking at cranes. the vast majority of cranes at u.s. ports are chinese. cranes are no longer steel in the air. they are all connected collecting data. i'd say this is -- we are building the capacity of our icts unit at the commerce department and looking very seriously at all of these connected apps whether they are games, cars, or that collects -- or anything that collects

data on large numbers of individuals. their g.p.s. location. where they are. where they go. their family members. i think that we need to take the threat much more seriously. that's why we are moving on on these things. mr. ellzey: thank you very much. i yield back. chair rogers: mr. ruppersberger. [indiscernible] mr. ruppersberger: can you hear me? secretary raimondo: yes. mr. ruppersberger: it was devastating for so many maryland families and businesses, i'm sure you know especially for the port of baltimore. last week my colleagues and i saw in person a terrific effort under way to clean up and replace this bridge. but our state is still feeling many of the ripple effects after the collapse. secretary, can you describe what your department has done so far to support these maryland-based businesses? what are the department's plans for the future of this program?

and how can we make sure maryland's business can make it through this rebuilding process? the maryland port of baltimore is one of the largest ports in the nation in the entire united states relies on it. secretary raimondo: my heart's with you and all those businesses and everyone there. i have talked to your governor on numerous occasions about this. by the way, noaa, the weather service, and our scientist team were on it right away to provide help in the immediate aftermath. mr. ruppersberger: it's one of the best efforts. hopefully it will pull the united states together. republicans and democrats, the -- for the benefit of our country. secretary raimondo: yeah. i agree with that. in any event, we are reaching out, the mbda and e.d.a. are reaching out to the businesses in that community, working with governors' offices, working with the governor's economic development agency to see what services we provide to those businesses.

i think -- i think it's on the books already. i'm going to do an event in baltimore with the governor, with small businesses, i'm going to go myself. just to let them know all the services we have available for small businesses. figure out ways we can help them get back on their feet. mr. ruppersberger: it's going to cost about $2 billion to replace it. it's a very unique place. affects the port of baltimore. so thank you for your cooperation and your involvement. secretary raimondo: thank you. mr. rogers: mr. morelle. mr. morelle: thank you, mr. chairman. if i can just talk for a moment about quantum technology. i was at a group meeting with national quantum experts last week, and i wanted -- one mentioned to me in 2017 the chinese used a satellite to send entangled particles between space and the ground. since then as i understand it

china has constructed 2,000 mile quantum link between beijing and shanghai. obviously quantum technology was communications, computing, etc. is a huge leap forward in technology that we need to be at the leading edge of. is there value in building, should the united states consider a significant national link between major cities that will allow us to use quantum networking? secretary raimondo: i'm afraid i would have to research that. quantum expert i am not. so we could follow up. it is an area -- a couple things. it's definitely frontier technology which is why we are export controlling seriously. it's up on investment screening list. we have asked in the budget for $68 million which is an increase of $14 million, at nist to hire 41 people to develop new standards and create research

partnerships for quantum. we are really leaning in at nist with universities to push forward on the research. whether or not what you say -- mr. morelle: i would love to see if there is value. secretary raimondo: i don't know the people at nist will have an opinion. we should make that happen. mr. morelle: i wanted -- you mentioned earlier a real problem around the chips space which is workforce development. talk to me a little bit about what the department's strategy is to promote workforce development in the space so that we can meet the needs of these businesses that are struggling? secretary raimondo: this is such a huge issue. i was yesterday with the c.e.o. of one of the biggest construction firms in america. he said that they -- attrition rate on their projects is 50% because they are going to competitors.

that they are turning down work because they can't find enough construction workers, and his number one biggest problem is lack of skilled workers. we are doing a number of things. we are asking every semiconductor company before they get our money to show us their workforce plan. we are -- as part of the money, the grant that we are giving to chips companies, a piece of it is for workforce. so you know, like intel, all these companies are getting tens of millions of dollars just to do workforce. and also we are developing a chips workforce center of excellence to train people. i think this has to be a moon shot. if we succeed, or if we fail with this chips effort it's because we haven't taken the workforce stuff seriously enough. which is why we are -- we have a whole workforce team that reports to me just to work with

colleges, universities, labor unions, high schools to train people to go work in the semiconductor industry. mr. morelle: i'll yield back and just comment. you don't have to respond it. seems to me for all the toubg -- talk about illegal immigration, we have hundreds of thousands of people who would like to come to the united states like my grandparents did to work in the united states, to fill critical jobs that we need to be successful with a low birth rate. maybe if we worked a reasonable thoughtful immigration policy we could meet some of the workforce challenges that all these companies, construction and health care and hospitality and the list goes on and on that we are desperately going to need. thanks for your comments. mr. chairman, i yield back. chair rogers: madam secretary, you have been very generous with your time and your opinions. secretary raimondo: hopefully not too generous in my opinions. chair rogers: we thank you for giving us this time together. we will look at your budget request in detail as we proceed.

thank you for the work you are doing. lots of good things happening. in a difficult world that we all of a sudden realize. we live in. so thank you for your work. this concludes today's hearing. we want to thank secretary raimondo for being here today with us. without objection, members may have seven days to submit additional questions for the record. the subcommittee stands adjourned. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]>> tha.

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