Congressman Pat Harrigan Takes Bold Step to Protect American Innovation with GATE Act

A freshman congressman is taking a stand against the pervasive threat of foreign exploitation, particularly from China and other nations, that endangers the very backbone of American innovation.

Representative Pat Harrigan (R-NC), a former Army Special Forces officer, has recently proposed the Guarding American Technology from Exploitation (GATE) Act. This legislation aims to enhance security at U.S. National Laboratories by limiting access for individuals from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Cuba.

In an interview with The Gateway Pundit, Harrigan articulated his commitment to protecting the U.S. from the extensive technological encroachment by China, among others. On August 13, H.R. 10092 was introduced, serving as the House companion to legislation put forth by Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) in March 2025.

Harrigan highlighted the alarming financial toll of foreign intellectual property theft, estimating losses to the United States at nearly $600 billion annually, with a significant amount occurring within national laboratories.

Supporting this assertion, the situation was underscored by a 2019 report (in pdf form) from the FBI, which indicated that “China is the world’s principal infringer of intellectual property, and it uses its laws and regulations to put foreign companies at a disadvantage and its own companies at an advantage.”

For Harrigan, “This is just something we can’t afford to be happening to the country from a national security perspective, [adding that] foreign nationals from adversarial countries should not be present in our national laboratories.”

The GATE Act restricts covered foreign nationals from visiting or being assigned long-term to National Laboratory facilities, information, or technology, while allowing U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to have access. The law permits the Secretary of Energy to issue a waiver, but only after consulting with intelligence officials from the Department of Energy and senior counterintelligence officials from the FBI, and only if the advantages to the United States surpass the associated national security and economic risks. In effect, “The Secretary of Energy has to personally sign on the dotted line for every single person from one of these adversarial countries that we’ve listed.”

Harrigan clarified that the proposed legislation does not preclude scientists and researchers from collaborating with the U.S. He drew a historical parallel to Wernher von Braun, a key figure in NASA’s Apollo program, underscoring the importance of maintaining valuable international partnerships while exercising caution.

He also acknowledged the complexities involved in such collaborations. “They might have some really talented people from the CCP, and we absolutely want to leverage their brain trust and have their best and brightest working for us instead of working for the Chinese, but the reality is that the coercive power of the Chinese Communist Party is universal,” Harrigan shared, noting that “they have the coercive ability to make that citizen working on behalf of the United States flip, and we need to be very cognizant of that.”

Through this proposed legislation, he said, “We just want to make sure these people are not spying for our enemies, and we want an unprecedented level of due diligence on these individuals if our leaders assess that having one or multiple of these individuals from these countries is absolutely critical to our national interests.”

“We simply need to ensure that these individuals are not acting as spies for our adversaries, and for this reason,” Harrigan declared, “it is essential that we exercise an unprecedented level of due diligence in our assessments. If our leaders determine that having one or more of these people from these nations is vital to our national interests, it is critical to proceed with caution and thorough evaluation.”

In a concluding thought, the North Carolina congressman said, the American taxpayers are pouring billions of dollars into our national laboratories, and over time, they have fostered some of the most significant technological breakthroughs in world. For him, these innovations not only pave the way for the next phase of the market economy but also strengthen the nation’s defense capabilities.

“We don’t need to be hemorrhaging intellectual property gains to our adversaries, and I think that we are right now, so this bill is the right solution at the right time for the size and the scale and the scope of the problem,” Harrigan argued.

As the U.S. continues to invest heavily in research and development, it is imperative that we not only harness talent from around the world but also ensure that such collaborations do not compromise our sovereignty or expose us to espionage. The passage of this act could serve as a pivotal moment in fortifying America’s technological future against adversarial forces.