Press Releases

Washington, D.C. (May 7, 2025)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, delivered opening remarks at the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet hearing on protecting American innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) amid global threats.

Below are Ranking Member Raskin’s remarks at today’s hearing.

WATCH  Ranking Member Raskin’s opening statement.

Ranking Member Jamie Raskin
Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet
Hearing on “Protecting Our Edge: Trade Secrets and the Global AI Arms Race”
May 7, 2025

Thank you, Chairman Issa, and thank you to the witnesses for being with us here today.

I’m happy to participate in a rare hearing on the important bipartisan work of this Committee. We don’t agree on a lot these days, but the importance of the U.S. intellectual property regime to American innovation is indeed a value that we all share.

But even with this agreement in Congress, the Executive Branch has injected terrible instability into our intellectual property regime. Innovation depends on predictable rules that individuals can rely on to secure their property rights, manufacture their inventions, and attract investors to their businesses.

Instead of fostering a predictable atmosphere that allows Americans to innovate, the Trump Administration has engendered chaos and hampered creativity in every sector. 

Since taking office, President Trump has revoked federal research grants to universities where scientists make new discoveries every year, and unlawfully canceled the visas of students who come here to learn and to innovate. In his first term, he increased the denial rate for highly skilled immigrants who work in computer programming, in engineering, and at research labs, among other technical fields.

In the first quarter of this year alone, Trump’s trade war against the world except for Russia has decreased the U.S. gross domestic product, raised prices on consumers, and encouraged businesses to hoard goods. Chaotic tariffs that change from day to day make it difficult for businesses big and small to plan ahead and result in them taking fewer risks. Companies are less likely to invest in ideas, and innovators are in turn less likely to strike out on their own to launch a startup. We may never know what inventions, what life-saving cures, what world-changing businesses were sacrificed at the altar of Donald Trump’s helter-skelter, lawless tariff agenda.

We should also remember that inventors and creators aren’t just big businesses. The heart of our American IP system are parents tinkering with an invention at the kitchen table after putting their kids to sleep, aspiring songwriters waiting tables to pay the bills while chasing their dreams, and engineering students researching the next big idea. Yet now, all of those people are having a harder time in Donald Trump’s America, a place where hope of that next big break feels further and further away. Investing in an idea is a risky proposition, but it is even riskier for the individual going it alone.

Finally, in most cases, intellectual property ownership is only as good as the ability to enforce that right in court. Every rights holder should be worried as we watch the all-out assault on the judicial branch unfold. A judicial system that doesn’t work for everyone eventually won’t work for anyone. And that includes IP owners.  

Despite these threats, the U.S. intellectual property system is still lauded around the world for its ability to spur innovation and creativity. That is, in part, because our founders chose to promote innovation by protecting the rights of individual creators. In Federalist 43, James Madison wrote that “the utility” of the Intellectual Property Clause in the Constitution “will scarcely be questioned,” and that, in the case of patents and copyrights, “the public good fully coincides…with the claims of individuals.” 

Rewarding individuals’ discoveries and creations has allowed innovation to flourish. According to a recent study, the United States is home to over half of the 10,095 artificial intelligence startups across the ten countries leading in AI development. We should be proud of our leadership in AI innovation. But we must also take steps to protect American trade secrets from competing nations that seek to steal our AI technology.

Some have referred to the push to develop the most advanced AI model as the “AI arms race.” Now, there is nothing wrong with competition in this sense. But when other countries threaten U.S. cybersecurity, steal Americans’ inventions, and conduct economic espionage against U.S. companies, as the government of China has done, that is cause for scrutiny from Congress. 

But just because we all agree AI systems should be secure from foreign threats does not obviate the responsibility AI platforms have to other rights holders and to consumers. Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk both recently made the claim that we should “delete all IP law.” I think that we all can emphatically reject this notion. America’s intellectual property system hasn’t just made us a global leader in AI—its very foundation created the careers of those two men. Intellectual property is the engine that powers our economy, driving innovation, jobs, and growth at every turn—for all inventors big and small, including Dorsey and Musk. Without a strong IP system, we risk losing the very spark that has made this country a global leader in innovation and opportunity.

I’m looking forward to hearing from our witnesses today. I thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back.