Sponsors (20)
Introduced January 8, 2026 by Todd Young · Last progress January 8, 2026
The bill substantially boosts U.S. quantum education, coordinated R&D, commercialization pathways, and national‑security resilience — improving competitiveness and workforce capacity — but raises taxpayer costs, tightens international collaboration and security constraints, adds administrative and eligibility burdens, and risks shifting resources away from basic research toward applied and defense‑oriented priorities.
Students, trainees, and the domestic STEM workforce will gain substantially expanded education, training, internships, fellowships, and K–12 through graduate programs to build a deeper quantum talent pipeline.
Researchers, universities, and companies will receive multi‑year center grants and coordinated R&D support (large centers, facility upgrades, testbeds, and equipment) that enable sustained quantum research, hiring, and scale‑up toward commercialization.
Critical infrastructure operators, digital service providers, and the tech industry get strengthened national-security protections through support for post‑quantum cryptography, supply‑chain assessments, allied cooperation, and guidance to reduce quantum attack risks.
Taxpayers face increased federal spending and ongoing appropriations demands from new centers, workforce programs, coordination offices, and international strategy implementation.
Researchers, universities, and foreign students/researchers will face tighter restrictions and reduced international collaboration because of funding bans, exclusions for entities tied to 'countries of concern', visitor screening, and immigration/retention conditions.
Smaller institutions, community colleges, startups, and less‑resourced researchers may be disadvantaged as large, multi‑year centers, industry cost‑share preferences, prize winners, and coordinated programs tend to favor well‑resourced organizations and established consortia.
Based on analysis of 40 sections of legislative text.
Expands and reauthorizes the federal quantum initiative to add centers, workforce hubs, standards and security rules, an international cooperation strategy, and to wind down the National Nanotechnology Program.
Creates a broad, security‑focused expansion and reauthorization of the federal quantum program: it extends authorities, adds new program authorities and centers at NIST and NSF, creates a national workforce and reskilling hub, requires interagency reviews and international cooperation strategy, tightens definitions and protections against foreign ‘countries/entities of concern,’ and terminates the National Nanotechnology Program. The bill funds competitive NIST quantum centers (up to three) with specified annual allocations (FY2026–2030), tasks OSTP and GAO with multiple reviews, and imposes new reporting, coordination, and oversight duties across federal agencies to accelerate U.S. quantum research, workforce development, standards, supply‑chain resilience, and international engagement.