Announcing a Special Event with Vice President JD VANCE
Also, three stories you should know
ALFA is proud to partner with Breitbart News and CGCN to bring you a conversation with Vice President JD Vance later this month.
Aside from the obvious, here’s why we’re excited to hear what he has to say: Vance came of age during the technological revolution that defines our country and our world today.
He’s the first millennial Vice President. And millennials have the unique experience of growing up alongside the technology that now shapes so many aspects of our lives.
Andreessen Horowitz’s Katherine Boyle has articulated this point well many times:
This pocket of millennials (1980-1987) remembers the before times vividly. Home ownership. Landlines. Car phones. Dial up internet. But also a hegemonic nation and normal American life before everything got weird.
As we wrestle with what AI means for work, education, and society, this is the perspective we need: to capture everything that’s promising with technology, while preserving the things that make us human.
The Trump-Vance administration, as highlighted by Vance’s speech in Paris earlier this year, is ensuring we can achieve this in the AI era. They are framing AI dominance as about more than chatbots and convenience. They understand it’s also about industrial capacity and strengthening the fabric of American life.
Vance has been articulating a core truth: American technological dominance and industrial capacity are inseparable. One cannot exist without the other. Having witnessed both what happens when we lose manufacturing and the greatness that can come from innovation, we are thrilled to host him for a conversation about America’s future.
The BIG Story Today
China imposed significant export controls on critical minerals that are “the basis of modern civilization.”
That quote is from former White House advisor Dean Ball. His whole thread is worth reading. Here’s part of it:
China has asserted sweeping control over the entire global semiconductor supply chain, putting export license requirements on all rare earths used to manufacture advanced chips. If enforced aggressively, this policy could mean “lights out” for the US AI boom.
And here’s more from Bill Bishop:
Today’s actions go way beyond semiconductors. You company needs drill bits for oil and gas drilling? You will need a PRC license... The PRC just showed that it can control the supply chains for “new quality productive forces” globally.
President Trump responded this morning, in part, by saying:
I will be forced, as President of the United States of America, to financially counter their move. For every Element that they have been able to monopolize, we have two. I never thought it would come to this but perhaps, as with all things, the time has come. Ultimately, though potentially painful, it will be a very good thing, in the end, for the U.S.A.
At yesterday’s cabinet meeting, the President also deputized Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to devise a formal countermeasure.
This will continue to be a major story to watch, particularly in the lead up to APEC.
Senate Passes Defense Bill
Last night, the Senate finally passed their version of the Defense Authorization Act. As former House Armed Services Staff Director, Chris Vieson wrote for ALFA last month:
The proposals in the Senate bill would establish a new baseline standard for the purchasing of technologies that also have a strong commercial presence. Unless a specific military solution was required, a military customer should be no different than, say, an FAA customer.
Now, the Senate and House will come together to negotiate a final, shared version of the bill that will be voted on before the end of the year. On matters of innovation and the “commercial first” approach, there is daylight between the bills passed by the House and Senate. The next several weeks will be critical to ensure the final bill provides our military what it needs for conflicts of the future.
Personnel News
Among the over 100 nominations the Senate cleared this week was Michael Boren, Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment. Michael’s responsibilities include overseeing the U.S. Forest Service, the federal agency chiefly responsible for fighting wildfires.
Here’s why Michael’s appointment is important: As a technology entrepreneur, Michael will be instrumental to integrating new advances into fire prevention—some of which we have detailed in these pages in the past. With news this week of an arrest related to last winter’s LA wildfires and the recent release of Matthew McConaughey’s The Lost Bus, we’re reminded of the devastation of recent fires. New technology to prevent, identify, and fight fires will save lives and property.
Bloomberg reported yesterday that President Trump may be once again considering Jared Isaacman for NASA Administrator. To refresh your memory, Jared is an entrepreneur who started his first company at age 16, an experienced jet pilot, and an astronaut who has traveled to space twice on private missions—including the first ever private spacewalk.
Despite widespread support from conservative leaders like former Speaker Newt Gingrich and the commercial space sector, Jared’s nomination was withdrawn just before his scheduled confirmation vote, for reasons unrelated to his qualifications. We hope this reporting is accurate and that Jared will be given a chance to lead the agency in a way befitting of the great legacy of NASA.