U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.), who serves on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and several Republican senators have sent a letter to Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright. The letter urges action to restrict Chinese foreign nationals from accessing national laboratories, citing concerns over American innovation in artificial intelligence and the recently launched Genesis Mission.
The senators wrote: “Genesis Mission was launched to help the U.S. win the race with China for AI supremacy by harnessing untapped prowess in this space at our national laboratories. Continuing to give access to the cutting-edge work performed at these laboratories to Chinese nationals who will turn everything they know over to the CCP directly undermines the purpose of Genesis Mission. Therefore, we respectfully recommend that you mitigate threats to Genesis Mission by promulgating a policy prohibiting the national laboratories from granting Chinese nationals access to any national laboratory site, information, or technology.”
The letter was signed by Senators Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), James Lankford (R-Okla.), and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) in addition to Senator Young.
In their correspondence, the senators stated support for President Trump’s commitment to maintaining U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence through initiatives such as the Genesis Mission, described as a modern-day Manhattan Project established via executive order last November.
They expressed concern about thousands of Chinese foreign nationals approved for access to DOE labs in fiscal year 2024, noting that this figure does not include legal permanent residents and may undercount those present. The senators argued that vetting processes are insufficient due to both resource constraints and efforts by China to obscure affiliations with the Chinese Communist Party.
“China is our main competitor in the race for AI dominance, a position it occupies only because it has stolen American intellectual property and technologies and co-opted them over the years. This is widely accepted and well-documented, and yet for decades we continue to give Chinese national scientists access to our national laboratories, which employ America’s best and brightest scientists who work on critical military, economic, and scientific technologies,” they wrote.
The letter recommends ending access for Chinese national scientists and researchers at these facilities as a means of protecting ongoing projects like Genesis Mission.
Senator Young represents Indiana in the U.S. Senate and serves on committees related to finance, commerce, science, transportation, small business, entrepreneurship, and intelligence. He has championed legislation supporting U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and has addressed issues involving national security—including those related to artificial intelligence—according to his official website as well as his Senate webpage. Young’s background includes military service and advanced degrees from institutions such as the U.S. Naval Academy.
