During a Senate Commerce Committee hearing last week, Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) questioned Paul Dabbar, nominee to be Deputy Secretary of Commerce, about global competition in the commercial space sector.
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00:00Thank you, Senator Schmidt.
00:02Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:04It's good to see you.
00:05Now, am I right you grew up in Independence then?
00:07No, I was right south in a little town called Bartlesville.
00:09I know Bartlesville.
00:11I know Bartlesville.
00:12Having run statewide three times in eight years, I know a lot of those towns.
00:16It's good to have you here.
00:18I did want to talk a little bit about, I know that trade is obviously a hot topic,
00:22and I think one of the things that's been illuminating for a lot of folks
00:28is to really kind of understand how we got here.
00:30I think, you know, after World War II, there were a lot of favorable conditions created
00:35so that our allies could get back on their feet, principally to defeat Soviet communism.
00:41That happened, and our foreign policy was sort of dedicated to that same proposition.
00:47That happened.
00:47But after the Cold War ended, there wasn't an adjustment by way of foreign policy
00:52nor on economic policy.
00:54So that's how you end up.
00:54You wake up and you go to, you know, you have Liberation Day,
00:57and you find out that all these countries have not just tariffs
01:00but all these sort of trade practices that make it difficult for our goods
01:05to get into their markets.
01:06You can't sell beef in Australia.
01:08You don't see an American car in Europe.
01:10You don't see an American car in Japan.
01:12And so from my perspective, it's about time that we rebalance that equation,
01:17and that's exactly what's happening right now.
01:19And I think you've got, from my perspective, you've got two buckets.
01:22You've got China, and you've got everybody else.
01:25And everybody else, that's what everybody's working through right now.
01:28Is that how you see it?
01:30Yes, Senator.
01:31That's fair.
01:33And I think, ultimately, you're seeing this investment.
01:37You're seeing the commitment from a lot of companies to start to do their advanced manufacturing,
01:42their production in the United States.
01:45I don't think it's – no one's naive.
01:47We're not going to produce everything here.
01:50But getting back our fair share as opposed to those jobs going to China or to Mexico,
01:55I think it's time that we have an administration that's stood up for working folks
01:59who've been kind of left behind by this globalist dream that borders don't matter
02:03and, you know, it's just nations don't matter.
02:06And I think that's what we're sort of on the precipice of.
02:10So, anyway, you know, not to put a bow on the debate because it's ongoing,
02:15but I did want to ask you also, the first two years I was here,
02:19I was the ranking member on the Space and Science Subcommittee.
02:22We dealt a lot with commercial space.
02:25And I just wanted to get your thoughts.
02:26There's – this is a really important area for us.
02:30You talk about this global – this competition we have,
02:32this great powers competition with China.
02:34It's not confined to the terrestrial.
02:36It's not confined to the sea.
02:38It's in space, too.
02:39And having a robust commercial space sector is really important for us to compete.
02:44And you talked about discovery.
02:45We don't really know what those discoveries might be on the moon or in Mars,
02:48but we know that we better find them before China because they certainly have designs.
02:53Have you been brought up to speed or can you speak to how your office intends to sort of operate both with respect to NOAA and AST over at –
03:05because what you don't want to have is this sort of turf battle that defines so much of what happens in Washington.
03:12And I think the newness of all this provides opportunities for greater alignment.
03:16How do you see that?
03:17Where do you – how do you plan to deal with that?
03:19So, I have a little bit of a background at DOE.
03:22We actually did Mars work with JPL and with NASA, and we looked at nuclear propulsion.
03:27So, there's a lot of technology advancement.
03:30Certainly, I would work very closely with NASA and the facilities at Kennedy and elsewhere
03:37that to make certain that we continue to suck in more investment and more launches and more commercial
03:43and use the footprint that we have in this country.
03:46And part of that, in order to drive the economy and the aerospace sector, which we are so incredibly strong lead in, including interstate.
03:55And so, I would advocate very strongly with my fellow science and technology other partners at NASA and elsewhere
04:03to make certain that we open up for the world as well as our own launches
04:09and expand our leadership that we're already doing pretty well on.
04:14Well, we'd love to get you back home to Missouri because, as you mentioned, there's a lot going on,
04:20particularly in the aerospace sector and the defense tech industry that sort of exists, I think, is really important.
04:25And then, finally, I just want to put it on your radar.
04:27I think one of the concerns with AI is it's a huge opportunity.
04:34I don't think it's Skynet about ready the universe to be destroyed,
04:38nor do I think cancer is going to be figured out tomorrow.
04:40It's probably somewhere in the middle.
04:42But it's a lot of opportunity.
04:44But one of the concerns I think a lot of folks have is that what you don't want to have
04:47is AI manipulated in a way that affects people's right to express themselves or free speech.
04:52And that will be sort of on your plate, too.
04:57We just want to make sure people, regardless of your opinion or your point of view,
05:01have the ability to speak your mind and you don't have this.
05:04We saw some of the efforts from the previous administration put their thumb on the scale with big tech.
05:09And you're going to be in a position to make sure that doesn't happen.
05:12And I'm sure that you share those concerns and want to make sure that it's an open platform, right, for folks?
05:17Yes, Senator.
05:18Okay, thank you.