‘We Need To Go From Being Reactive To Proactive’: Sec Gina Raimondo Champions FY2025 Commerce Budget

last year

During a House Energy & Commerce Committee hearing last week, Sec. Gina Raimondo gave her opening testimony about the budget before the committee.

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Transcript

00:00I thank the ranking member. Our witness today is Gina Raimondo, the Secretary of

00:05Commerce. Welcome, Madam Secretary. You're recognized for five minutes for your

00:10testimony. Thank you, all of you. Thank you. Good morning. It's nice to be here. I've

00:17had the opportunity to get to know, I think, almost all of you and work with

00:20you and I appreciate that. One of the best parts of being Commerce Secretary

00:25is it's really bipartisan, right? Working together on manufacturing, competitiveness,

00:29countering China. It's all bipartisan and so it's really my pleasure to be

00:34here and to continue to work with you, you know, in the weeks and months ahead. I

00:40don't want to thank you for your time. Thank you to the chair and to the ranking

00:43member and to all of you. We are, as has been said, and I appreciate all the kind

00:48remarks. We are working hard and doing our best. We are, as you have said,

00:53implementing some of the most significant initiatives passed by

00:59Congress in the past few years. We have the Commerce Department through the

01:02Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and through the Chips and Science Act.

01:06And I want to say thanks to these laws and the funding that Congress has

01:10provided, we're able to do the work of the American people. The budget that I

01:14have before you requests $11.4 billion in discretionary funding and $4

01:20billion in mandatory funding for the department in FY 25. I know you're not an

01:26appropriations committee, but your leadership matters. You've all

01:29demonstrated how passionate you are about these issues and your leadership

01:32matters. And so I'm here to ask you for your support of this funding. I just want

01:38to take my remaining time to briefly step through some of our top priorities.

01:43First, and this has been mentioned by almost all of you, this budget positions

01:48America to prevent China and other countries from obtaining U.S. technology,

01:55U.S. capital, and expertise for activities that threaten our national

01:59security. As Representative Pallone said and McMorris-Rogers, we have to beat

02:05China. That requires a strategy and that requires investment. The budget requests

02:11a total of $223 million, a $32 million increase for BIS to expand export

02:19control enforcement, as well as $5 million for ITA to address risks from

02:24outbound investments into technologies in China, which we believe could enhance

02:29their military. The budget promotes America's technological leadership and

02:34responsible innovation in AI. It requests $61.6 million for activities like

02:42research and development for AI safety, and we want to develop AI but also

02:48mitigate risks. These funds will empower NIST to implement central components of

02:54President Biden's AI executive order, including significant investments in the

02:59AI Safety Institute, which we have already stood up and are working hard to

03:04develop AI guidance. We also request $8.9 million to BIS to gather vital

03:11information on bad actors who may be threatening our national security by

03:15trying to develop frontier AI models using U.S. cloud infrastructure. A number

03:22of you mentioned supply chains. The budget supports prioritizing investments

03:27in resilient supply chains. We need to go from being reactive to proactive. We

03:32can't just react in the instance of a COVID or a bridge collapse. We need to be

03:37proactive to building and strengthening our supply chains, so it includes money

03:42for the Manufacturing USA program, for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership,

03:47and money for ITA to support building a supply chain resiliency office. The

03:55budget provides resources to strengthen our relationship with our allies, to

04:00advance our shared values, and shape the strategic environment in which we

04:04operate vis-a-vis China. We need to out-compete China. Wake up every day

04:10asking ourselves, how do we out-compete China? That means we have to show up in

04:14the rest of the world, and this budget includes $379 million for ITA to

04:20expand exports and services so U.S. businesses can grow in foreign markets.

04:25The budget also requests new investments for EDA to build on tech hubs. A number

04:33of you have amazing tech hub proposals before us. I wish I could fund them all.

04:38We don't have the funds to do that, and I hope to work with you and others in

04:42Congress to figure out ways, creative ways, to get more funding to invest in

04:48tech hubs. Finally, the budget invests in our fundamental science infrastructure.

04:53It invests over $400 million in fundamental research infrastructure at

05:00NIST and NOAA and NTIA for maintenance, renovations, and improvements at NIST

05:06campuses. I just want to conclude by saying we need support from Congress.

05:13We will be efficient with taxpayer dollars, but we need your support to make

05:19these investments so we can out-compete and support American workers and

05:23businesses, and I look forward to working with all of you to do that.

‘We Need To Go From Being Reactive To Proactive’: Sec Gina Raimondo Champions FY2025 Commerce Budget

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