Opening Statements

U.S. Representative Don Bacon (R-NE), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation, submitted the following opening statement for the record at a subcommittee hearing on the military posture of science, technology, and innovation. 

Stream the hearing here.

Rep. Bacon's remarks as prepared for delivery:

Welcome to today’s Cyber, IT, and Innovation Subcommittee hearing on Department of Defense science and technology policies and programs.

While we will not be able to discuss details of the President’s fiscal year 2026 budget request today, this hearing provides an opportunity for the subcommittee to explore ongoing efforts across the Department of Defense to develop and modernize our warfighting capabilities at the necessary speed and scale to fight and win in an era of Great Power Competition. 

As we know all too well, the United States and our allies are facing unprecedented threats from adversaries around the world.

These bad actors seek to undermine global stability and security by eroding the United States military’s technological edge.

The PRC seeks to undermine U.S. leadership in several critical technology areas including quantum, AI, biotechnology, and cyber. 

Luckily, the United States is home to the best and brightest companies, engineers, researchers, and warfighters.

We are entering a pivotal moment in our nation’s history where we can harness this innovation ecosystem and move quickly to deliver cutting edge capabilities our warfighters need and restore the arsenal of democracy. 

But despite this potential and promise, we don’t have the time or money to waste.

We need to move out now to develop, test, and field at scale the technologies that will be required for the United States to win on battlefields today and in the future. 

An example of this is the NC3 enterprise modernization.

Then Secretary Mattis started this effort seven years ago and we are still churning on it today with very limited progress to date.

While I don’t expect the NC3 enterprise to be modernized overnight, we need a more focused, integrated, and sustained effort across the Department. 

First, we must identify the most pressing operational challenges the Department must solve.

Second, we need to leverage the innovation of the commercial sector and our DOD research enterprise to identify the technologies that can fill those gaps.

And finally, we must test these capabilities in operationally realistic environments quickly and throughout capability development and design.  

In this process, we need to make every day and every dollar count.

We are joined today by three DOD organizations who are striving to do just that.

Our witnesses include:
•    Mr. James Mazol, Performing the Duties of Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. Mr. Mazol, we appreciate your service to R&E as we await Mr. Emil Michael’s confirmation vote 
•    Mr. Doug Beck, Director of the Defense Innovation Unit; and 
•    Mr. George Rumford, Director of the Test Resource Management Center 

Thank you all for being here today and for your service to our Department.