Sens. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) and Mike Lee (R., Utah) are leading Senate Republicans’ effort to ban foreign spies from American laboratories, a letter obtained exclusively by the Washington Reporter shows. 

The two lawmakers, who chair the Senate’s Intelligence Energy and Natural Resources Committees, respectively, joined with Sens. Jim Risch (R., Idaho), Jim Justice (R., W-Va.), John Cornyn (R., Texas), John Barrasso (R., Wyo.), James Lankford (R., Okla.), Dave McCormick (R., Pa.), Jerry Moran (R., Kansas), Todd Young (R., Ind.), and Ted Budd (R., N.C.) and wrote to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, noting that while the Trump administration has shown a “continued commitment to ensuring American dominance in the field of artificial intelligence (AI)” via projects like the “Genesis Mission” they have concerns about the “thousands of Chinese foreign nationals who are granted to, or work at, our labs.”

Lawmakers are “concerned” about the access China’s extensive espionage network in America could give American adversaries, lawmakers said in the letter. Despite China’s well-documented espionage of American intellectual property, “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.”

There are thousands of Chinese nationals known to be working in American labs, and the Republican senators added that the real number is likely far higher. Even when a Chinese national is not an overt spy for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), “the Chinese government [can compel them] in one way or another… to turn over what they have learned during their time at a national laboratory.”

A Congressional Hill source told the Washington Reporter that “Chinese influence in these labs is a huge problem. It’s shocking that these Chinese scientists with ties to the CCP are allowed in the country in the first place, let alone at these labs. Good for Senators Cotton and Lee to lead the fight to keep America safe.” 

Republicans want the Energy Department to “promulgat[e] a policy prohibiting the national laboratories from granting Chinese nationals access to any national laboratory site, information, or technology.”

Read the letter here: Wright_CottonLee_13JAN26