At today's Senate Commerce Committee hearing, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) questioned Paul Dabbar, nominee of New York, to be Deputy Secretary of Commerce.
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00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again, appreciate working together with you on many energy fronts, including Quantum and Hanford Cleanup.
00:10Mr. DeMar, do you support the Chips and Science Act?
00:15Yes, I've been on the record and testified in support of that when it was going through Congress.
00:18So you believe in honoring the agreements that are in place with companies?
00:22I'm not familiar with actual agreements underneath the Chips Act at the Commerce Department, but the president has been...
00:30Generally, if you think we've signed an agreement with company and allocated resources, that we should fulfill them?
00:37Barring any major problems with them?
00:42So Secretary Lutnik and the president have been very clear about how to take the resources under the Chips and Science Act
00:50and how to get the most bang for the buck for the taxpayer.
00:54And I think the president and the announcement, and Secretary Lutnik was just in Arizona on the announcement around TSMC
01:02moving from one fab for $65 billion of support to three fabs and $165 billion with no additional CHIP support.
01:11And so I think that's a great example of taking the Chips Act subsidies and support and how to get the most out of it within agreements.
01:23So I'm not familiar, for example, with all the TSMC agreements, but I think that's an excellent one.
01:27I have more questions.
01:28I actually saw Secretary Lutnik last night, and he was emphasizing how much he enjoyed being there.
01:34But I tell you this, this committee and the last administration got that done.
01:38Now, I'm glad you feel like you get to rearrange some of the chess pieces,
01:42but the president of the United States saying he's not for Chips and Science
01:46and then all of us having to push back every damn day is nuts.
01:50Okay?
01:51This is policy that we've implemented that will make the United States competitive.
01:56And so I just need to know that you're not going to be one of another than one of these people
02:00that is going to make this harder for us.
02:01That's all we want to know.
02:02Okay.
02:03Will you commit to maintaining the NIST budget and the other R&D programs that are under the agency?
02:13Sorry.
02:14Yes.
02:16What about the money for the tech hubs?
02:19Yes.
02:19I think as appropriated and authorized, I certainly know a bit about the tech hubs,
02:25but assuming it's funded and authorized.
02:28Okay.
02:29What about moving marine fisheries out of NOAA and into interior?
02:34Also a ridiculous idea.
02:36So I only know what I read in the newspaper about different potential proposals.
02:42I do know that over time that various proposals have been made about NOAA,
02:47including last Congress, about separating it completely.
02:51So I would review any sort of proposal, given many has been made over the decades, on NOAA.
02:59I get this may not be one of your areas of expertise,
03:02but if you could bone up a little bit more on this for the record and give us an answer.
03:07The science that NOAA does helps us manage our fisheries.
03:12And right now, we're being taken advantage of by both the Chinese and the Russians.
03:16And so we don't want to be more disenabled at NOAA to advocate for our fisheries.
03:22My colleague from Alaska who's here probably has a thought on this.
03:25But we want to be more empowered to fight and fight the injustices against the United States.
03:32We see a huge opportunity for the Department of Commerce to provide that leadership.
03:36You want to talk about a trade issue, talk about fisheries,
03:40and talk about the unfairness that's happening.
03:42But we need the science, and we need that agency to be complete on its R&D mission in NOAA.
03:49So what about the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research that also is being proposed to be eliminated?
03:56Well, just to address your first point, Senator,
03:59when I was undersecretary for science, we had a smaller than NOAA,
04:03but we did have a number of topics around fish and around atmospheric sciences.
04:08We had one plane rather than several.
04:10There was a bit of a history of that on nuclear weapons and so on.
04:14But the fish, as you know, Senator Cantwell,
04:17we had research in Washington State along the Columbia River that I helped run.
04:23Squim, which is another facility.
04:26And at Senator Blackburn's state at Oak Ridge on...
04:30Okay, I have one more question I have to ask you, so I got that you have a little bit of...
04:35You'll come back to me on this point.
04:37But on the spectrum issue, you don't...
04:40The warfare of the future is in the skies, correct?
04:44Sorry.
04:45The warfare...
04:46On the spectrum issue, the warfare of the future is in the skies, correct?
04:49Yeah, absolutely, Senator.
04:50Okay.
04:51And so we can't give away DOD assets that could have interference if that hurts our warfare capabilities for the future.
04:57Is that correct?
04:59We absolutely need to be careful.
05:01And I do have a technical, a bit of a technical background in this.
05:04And I know there are many people working on how to use the spectrum from a technical point of view more efficiently.
05:10So in addition to just what the actual spectrum set aside is, but also how to manage it better from a technical...
05:18But you don't believe in compromising DOD?
05:20Oh, absolutely not, Senator.
05:21Yes, yes, sorry.
05:22Thank you, Mr. Chairman.