Streamlining Procurement for Effective Execution and Delivery and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026

Floor Speech

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Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Chair, Representative Moolenaar's amendment No. 26, entitled the SAFE Research Act, would enact excessive prohibitions for research awards that would stymie American innovation. In particular, the amendment would introduce a government-wide prohibition to give awards to individuals if they, or a research collaborator, have been affiliated with a hostile foreign entity at any time within five years of applying for the award. The definitions of who is included a ``hostile foreign entity'' is very far reaching and includes twelve separate entity lists as well as any entity performing academic, scientific, or technical collaboration perceived to contribute to nefarious activity.

For an agency to implement this prohibition, they would have to analyze a personal history of every awardee, along with every research collaborator (defined by joint research, coauthored publications, collaboration on awards, and formal mentor relationships) that awardee has had in the past five years. Furthermore, the amendment restricts post-award activity, prohibiting covered individuals from sharing ``expertise'' with ``hostile foreign entities,'' or those affiliated with them, for five years. This is vague, onerous, and impracticable. Simply from an implementation standpoint, it is highly difficult for any research agency, nonetheless one that has had its staff gutted, to properly carry out these proposed policies.

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