OSTP Official Lays Out Details on White House AI Initiatives At House Hearing

“Over the last six months, the Administration has moved from strategy to execution, as I and my team at The White House coordinate implementation milestones across the federal government,” Kratsios told the committee.

“I am particularly excited about the innovative potential of the Genesis Mission and AI for science,” he added. “By fusing massive federal datasets with advanced supercomputing capabilities, Genesis will help America’s scientists automate experiment design, accelerate simulations, and generate predictive models for everything from medicine and energy to materials and agriculture.”

He also highlighted the administration’s efforts to clear away red tape to speed up construction of AI-related infrastructure, including ramping up the U.S.’ energy capacity to power massive AI data centers currently being built or planned.

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But Kratsios ran into skeptical questions from several Democrats on the panel over how the administration can reconcile its ambitious technology agenda with the funding cuts to federal science and technology agencies and DOGE-driven firings of government technology workers in 2025.

“We all agree here that, you know, technology and innovation is critical, and government plays a role in that,” Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) said. “How do you reconcile trying to recruit for this U.S. Tech Force with the firings of technologists who I think are right now very nervous about working in government?”

Others on the panel raised questions about the administration’s proposed $325 million funding cut to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the loss of nearly 500 federal technology employees.

“I think what’s happened to American science is reprehensible, and the cuts that have been proposed –– and that I fear are about to be proposed again in a second presidential budget –– are attacking one of the core pillars of American strength,” Rep. George Whitesides (D-CA) said. “I think it is crucial that all of us who believe in the importance of science and innovation and technology speak up against the attacks that we have seen in the past year, both against funding, but more importantly, against the dedicated Americans who both in public service and funded by public funds are doing the work to make our world better.”

Kratsios sought to disentangle the funding and staffing cuts to agencies from other initiatives like the planned Tech Force. “I think what’s unique about the Tech Force initiative and what [the Office of Personnel Management] is driving with that is the buy-in from the private sector,” he said. “I think it’s unique to that program, something we haven’t seen in previous programs.”

Plans call for the U.S. Tech Force to partner with private-sector companies, such as Oracle, Palantir and Meta, to lend employees to the government for limited periods while guaranteeing they can return to their current jobs when their government stints are over.

“The key thing that I always try to remind people is: even in our attempt to try to right-size the budget, the one area where we have kept a consistent amount of proposed budget funding has been AI,” Kratsios said. “We believe that this is a critical research priority for the administration, and something that we continue to fund.”