II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 929
To prohibit National Laboratories from admitting certain foreign nationals,
and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH11 (legislative day, MARCH10), 2025
Mr. C
OTTON(for himself, Mr. LEE, Ms. COLLINS, Mr. BARRASSO, Mr.
L
ANKFORD, and Mr. RISCH) introduced the following bill; which was read
twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
A BILL
To prohibit National Laboratories from admitting certain
foreign nationals, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Guarding American 4
Technology from Exploitation Act of 2025’’ or the ‘‘GATE 5
Act of 2025’’. 6
SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON NATIONAL LABORATORIES AD-7
MITTING CERTAIN FOREIGN NATIONALS. 8
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 9
VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:53 Mar 25, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S929.IS S929
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2
•S 929 IS
(1) ASSIGNEE.—The term ‘‘assignee’’ means an 1
individual who is seeking approval from, or has been 2
approved by, a National Laboratory to access the 3
premises, information, or technology of the National 4
Laboratory for a period of more than 30 consecutive 5
days. 6
(2) C
OVERED FOREIGN NATIONAL .— 7
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘‘covered for-8
eign national’’ means a foreign national of any 9
of the following countries: 10
(i) The People’s Republic of China. 11
(ii) The Russian Federation. 12
(iii) The Islamic Republic of Iran. 13
(iv) The Democratic People’s Republic 14
of Korea. 15
(v) The Republic of Cuba. 16
(B) E
XCLUSION.—The term ‘‘covered for-17
eign national’’ does not include an individual 18
that is— 19
(i) lawfully admitted for permanent 20
residence (as defined in section 101(a) of 21
the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 22
U.S.C. 1101(a))); or 23
(ii) a citizen of the United States. 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:53 Mar 25, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S929.IS S929
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 3
•S 929 IS
(3) FOREIGN NATIONAL.—The term ‘‘foreign 1
national’’ has the meaning given the term ‘‘alien’’ in 2
section 101(a) of the Immigration and Nationality 3
Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)). 4
(4) N
ATIONAL LABORATORY .—The term ‘‘Na-5
tional Laboratory’’ has the meaning given the term 6
in section 2 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (42 7
U.S.C. 15801). 8
(5) S
ENIOR COUNTERINTELLIGENCE OFFI -9
CIAL.—The term ‘‘senior counterintelligence official’’ 10
means— 11
(A) the Director of the Federal Bureau of 12
Investigation; 13
(B) the Deputy Director of the Federal 14
Bureau of Investigation; 15
(C) the Executive Assistant Director of the 16
National Security Branch of the Federal Bu-17
reau of Investigation; and 18
(D) the Assistant Director of the Counter-19
intelligence Division of the Federal Bureau of 20
Investigation. 21
(6) V
ISITOR.—The term ‘‘visitor’’ means an in-22
dividual who is seeking approval from, or has been 23
approved by, a National Laboratory to access the 24
premises, information, or technology of the National 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:53 Mar 25, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S929.IS S929
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 4
•S 929 IS
Laboratory for any period shorter than a period de-1
scribed in paragraph (1). 2
(b) P
ROHIBITION.— 3
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-4
graph (2), beginning on the date of enactment of 5
this Act, a National Laboratory— 6
(A) shall not admit as a visitor or assignee 7
any covered foreign national; and 8
(B) shall prohibit access to any visitor or 9
assignee that is a covered foreign national and 10
has sought or obtained approval to access the 11
premises, information, or technology of the Na-12
tional Laboratory as of that date. 13
(2) W
AIVER.—Paragraph (1) shall not apply to 14
a National Laboratory with respect to a covered for-15
eign national if the Secretary of Energy, in consulta-16
tion with the Director of the Office of Intelligence 17
and Counterintelligence of the Department of En-18
ergy and a senior counterintelligence official— 19
(A) certifies that the benefits to the United 20
States of admittance or access to the National 21
Laboratory by the covered foreign national out-22
weigh the national security and economic risks 23
to the United States; and 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:53 Mar 25, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S929.IS S929
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 5
•S 929 IS
(B) issues to the National Laboratory, in 1
writing, a waiver of paragraph (1) with respect 2
to the covered foreign national. 3
(3) N
OTIFICATION TO CONGRESS .—Not later 4
than 30 days after the date on which a waiver is 5
issued under paragraph (2), the Secretary of Energy 6
shall submit to the Select Committee on Intelligence 7
of the Senate, the Committee on Energy and Nat-8
ural Resources of the Senate, the Committee on 9
Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Sen-10
ate, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence 11
of the House of Representatives, the Committee on 12
Energy and Commerce of the House of Representa-13
tives, and the Committee on Science, Space, and 14
Technology of the House of Representatives a notifi-15
cation describing the waiver, including— 16
(A) the country of origin of the covered 17
foreign national who is the subject of the waiv-18
er; 19
(B) the date of the request by the covered 20
foreign national for admission or access to the 21
National Laboratory; 22
(C) the date on which the decision to issue 23
the waiver was made; and 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:53 Mar 25, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S929.IS S929
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 6
•S 929 IS
(D) the specific reasons for issuing the 1
waiver. 2
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:53 Mar 25, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S929.IS S929
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS