Rep. Van Epps Speaks at SST Budget Hearing on Revitalizing American Scientific Research
Rep. Van Epps Speaks at SST Budget Hearing on Revitalizing American Scientific Research
Washington, D.C.-Rep. Van Epps (TN-07) participated in a Science, Space, and Technology (SST) Committee hearing titled, “Unleashing the Golden Age of Science: Examining the Priorities of the FY2027 Research and Technology Enterprise.”
Watch Rep. Van Epps' statement here.
Read Rep. Van Epps’ opening remarks here:
“Thank you, Director Kratsios, for being here today. In March 2025, President Trump charted out a clear vision for scientific progress and technological innovation: to position America to maintain leadership in emerging technologies like AI, quantum, and nuclear; to revitalize American scientific research; and to ensure that the growth of science and technology stimulates …economic growth.
Director Kratsios and OSTP have delivered by supporting these goals: the National AI Legislative Framework provided clear direction on how Congress should act to spur…on AI innovation that serves Americans, and an executive order signed by the President last month to accelerate U.S. innovation in quantum technologies to strengthen our national security.
One year after executive orders on nuclear energy, we are seeing real-world results. The President’s bold goal of three advanced test reactors achieving criticality before the Fourth of July was not only met but exceeded with four reactors achieving criticality. Just yesterday, Director Kratsios published a report establishing a blueprint for renewing American scientific leadership for the 21st century.
After the Biden administration floundered to position America for technology leadership and energy dominance, we are seeing tangible results from the Trump administration, with OSTP providing critical support.”
Read Rep. Van Epps’ questions here:
Rep. Van Epps asked, “ We must maintain the lead across the board when it comes to AI. Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab found that DeepSeek’s free, open-source models have driven AI adoption across the developing world. Recently, the Chinese company, Moonshot, released…a new open-weight model that performs competitively with American frontier models. US companies are turning toward open-source and open-weight models as they are cheaper, customizable, and… have less guardrails.
Just earlier this morning, the director of your team posted that Moonshot AI conducted large-scale covert distillation to develop their newest K3 model, and so a few questions here: How do we balance an open innovation ecosystem while protecting American technology from IP threat, and how is OSTP responding to the threat to American AI leadership posed by Chinese open source and open weight models?”
Director of White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Michael Kratsios replied, “I think there's, for starters, an important distinction to be made between open source models and large scale industrial covert distillation of American models, and I think what was made public today was exactly that: the convert industrial distillation of…American technology. The administration deeply believes that the future of American leadership in AI is contingent upon having a…vibrant open and closed source set of models for Americans and the world to use. I think on the first or second page of the AI action plan the president released last year, we emphasized very strongly that the U.S. must lead in…open source. So for us, we're doing everything we can to…kind of push the open source community ahead in the U.S...and provide lots of alternatives for all of our entrepreneurs.
Rep. Van Epps asked, “Great, thanks, director. Modern research and AI model training runs on data, such as biological databases and materials data. American leadership in these fields depends on the quality and accessibility of that underlying data infrastructure. That's why I introduced the Web of Biological Data Act of 2026, which would establish a single point of entry for researchers to access high-quality biological data for use in research and development. Director, what…role does access to high-quality data play in America's science and AI ecosystem, and how would a single point of entry for standardized data sets impact the pace of innovation?
Director Kratsios replied, “The…access to data…is critically important, and I think…one of the reasons why the Genesis mission was launched to begin with was an understanding that there was a great deal of scientific data available to national labs….If we could leverage that for AI, it could pay huge, huge dividends. So I'd love to learn more…about your bill…and kind of see…how we can get something…in that neighborhood of…work through because…I think none of this stuff works…unless you have the data underlying it to train the models.”