Senator Pushes Trio of Bipartisan Bills to Boost U.S. Quantum Edge

Insider Brief

• Sen. Marsha Blackburn introduced three bipartisan bills to expand federal leadership in quantum technology across defense, commercialization, and manufacturing, NextGov reports.
• The Defense Quantum Acceleration Act would require the Pentagon to create a strategic plan for adopting quantum systems and appoint a principal quantum advisor.
• The two companion bills would create a commercial testing sandbox at NIST and direct federal agencies to coordinate on quantum manufacturing and research infrastructure.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) introduced three bipartisan bills aimed at expanding federal leadership in quantum technology, signaling a coordinated push to keep the U.S. ahead in a field with both commercial and national security stakes, NextGov is reporting.

The proposed legislation targets a broader federal footprint in quantum information science — specifically, defense strategy, near-term commercial deployment, and quantum manufacturing. The bills come as Congress has yet to reintroduce the broader National Quantum Initiative Reauthorization Act, which would set long-term federal funding levels for research and development in quantum technologies.

“These bills would provide a strategic roadmap for quantum development, promote continued innovation, and supercharge the Defense Department’s approach to quantum technology to advance our national security,” Blackburn said in a press release, as reported by NextGov. “I look forward to working with the Commerce Committee to pass these bills and reauthorize the National Quantum Initiative.”

Three Quantum Bills

Each bill carries bipartisan support, with a different Democratic senator cosponsoring each measure.

The Defense Quantum Acceleration Act, cosponsored by Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), directs the Department of Defense to play a more active role in quantum research and adoption, according to NextGov. It would require the Pentagon to craft a strategic plan covering “development, assessment, procurement and implementation” of quantum information technologies. It also proposes the creation of a senior advisory role to guide the transition of quantum systems from research to operations.

This new “principal quantum advisor” would help coordinate and accelerate the transfer of quantum advances with military applications from the lab into use by defense agencies. The intent, according to the bill’s text, is to bring structure and accountability to how DOD interacts with emerging quantum capabilities, from secure communications to quantum sensing.

The second proposal, the Quantum Sandbox for Near-Term Applications Act, focuses on bridging quantum theory and practice. Backed by Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), the bill would establish a sandbox program housed within the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The goal is to bring together private industry, national labs and advocacy groups to test and validate commercially promising quantum systems.

This sandbox would work closely with the Quantum Economic Development Consortium, a group that helps guide U.S. industry priorities in the field. As NextGov indicates, the bill reflects growing interest in near-term quantum technologies that, while not yet powerful enough to outperform traditional supercomputers in all domains, are mature enough to start serving real-world use cases in logistics, optimization, and material discovery.

The third bill, the Advancing Quantum Manufacturing Act, introduced with Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), shifts focus to building out the domestic industrial base, NextGov reports. It directs the Department of Energy to collaborate with the National Science Foundation on research into multiple types of quantum systems — such as gate-based and annealing-based computers — and their underlying qubits, the building blocks of quantum information. The bill also includes support for broader “quantum-enabling” infrastructure, which can include cryogenic systems, precision timing devices, and photonic control components.

Pivotal Moment For Government

Blackburn’s package of bills follows her previous efforts to increase federal quantum spending and support. According to NextGov, the timing of these proposals is important because the future of the National Quantum Initiative — a framework established in 2018 to coordinate federal investment in quantum — is still unresolved for the current session.

While the government has continued to fund quantum through existing programs, advocates have warned that without a formal reauthorization, long-term planning could falter.