US Officials Urge Congress to Reauthorize Key Quantum Law

A lapsed federal law significantly strengthened coordination across the federal government, academia and industry on quantum computing – but gaps in authorization threaten to undermine progress, officials told lawmakers Thursday.

See Also: On-Demand | NYDFS MFA Compliance: Real-World Solutions for Financial Institutions

Senior leaders from the Department of Energy, National Institute of Standards and Technology, NASA and the National Science Foundation testified before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology that the National Quantum Initiative Act of 2018 created a long-absent national framework for quantum research, allowing federal agencies to align priorities, share infrastructure and coordinate investments across computing, sensing and networking technologies. The bill lapsed in 2023.

Lawmakers introduced the National Quantum Initiative Reauthorization Act in early January as part of a bipartisan effort to revive the lapsed federal framework and boost domestic funding for research.

The first quantum act authorized nearly $1.27 billion for federal quantum research and development, with improved coordination driving large-scale research programs, new public-private partnerships and expanded workforce pipelines, witnesses said. The panel told lawmakers the initiative helped move quantum research beyond isolated laboratory experiments toward early-stage systems with scientific and national security relevance. They warned sustained investment is needed to maintain U.S. leadership.

“The last six years have seen the birth and rapid development of the U.S. quantum ecosystem and a world-leading emergent U.S. quantum industry,” said James Kushmerick, director of the NIST physical measurement laboratory. But, he added that the U.S. “is facing a challenging and highly competitive landscape,” with China reportedly investing over $15 billion in quantum development and other countries “making significant advancements” in areas like quantum communications.

The reauthorization act would authorize nearly $1.5 billion and aims to expand research and development around quantum commercialization, workforce development and national security. Committee members from both parties said the original initiative demonstrated how a coordinated federal approach helped boost U.S. leadership at a critical moment – but workforce constraints and unstable funding measures have hampered progress.

“Maintaining U.S. leadership will require sustained investment in fundamental research,” said Committee Chair Brian Babin, R-Tex. “With adversaries around the world investing heavily in quantum capabilities, the United States cannot afford to fall behind in the global race to quantum supremacy.”

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in June establishing a new framework for post-quantum readiness, rolling back the previous administration’s encryption requirements and directing the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to maintain a list of product categories where post-quantum cryptography is commercially available. Competitor nations are likely already pursuing “harvest now, decrypt later” strategies, stockpiling encrypted data for future decryption once a cryptanalytically relevant quantum computer is online – which some predict could arrive in the early 2030s (see: Trump Cybersecurity EO Scrambles Post-Quantum Preparation).

If Congress does not reauthorize the legislation, the panel told lawmakers federal agencies risk losing continuity in programs designed to bridge basic research and operational readiness. Tanner Crowder, quantum information science lead for the Department of Energy, described the original bill as “a significant milestone for American leadership in quantum information science and technology” and said its reauthorization “can usher the U.S. into the next chapter of quantum information science and technology.”

“Maturing quantum technologies into fully functional scientific instruments for America will require careful handoffs between federal agencies, scientists, engineers, manufacturers and industrial performers,” he added.

Lawmakers on the committee largely framed quantum development as a race against Beijing’s research investments, with Democrats noting how recent federal cuts to the workforce and research in physics, mathematics and engineering directly weaken the quantum pipeline. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, the California representative who is the committee’s ranking Democrat, said U.S. quantum leadership in recent years was “built upon a foundation of investments and efforts at every level in academia, industry and our federal government.”

“The U.S. government has been the primary supporter of openly published quantum research,” she said. “However, we’re now facing a peer competitor to the United States in quantum applications.”

“China has caught up,” she added. “America must win the quantum race.”

Witnesses urged Congress to view the reauthorization as a long-term strategic commitment in the sector. Mark Clampin, deputy association administrator of NASA’s science mission directorate, detailed research and development concepts the agency was already working towards, including tools based on quantum devices that can help NASA explore the moons around Jupiter and Saturn and a portable device that can help map out Earth’s moon for human exploration.

“There remain many new areas of quantum science that have potential space applications,” he added.

The reauthorization bill largely preserves the structure of the original initiative while expanding support for testbeds, supply chain development and public-private partnerships designed to move quantum technologies out of research environments and toward deployment. Agency officials said continued congressional backing is critical to maintaining long-term research centers, workforce programs and shared infrastructure that require multi-year planning and stable staffing.