A Capitol View: July 2025

Welcome to the July edition of A Capitol View!

‘TECHNOLOGY PIPELINE’: SMI continues to strengthen a core technical and policy expertise to build new partnerships between the public and private sectors to advance national defense.

In our latest move, Aisha Haynes , PhD, a proven Pentagon leader in advanced materials, has joined the firm as vice president.

“Aisha brings over 20 years of experience working for the Department of Defense, with deep expertise in advanced materials, materials dynamics, and science and technology strategy,” said SMI COO Ken Wetzel said. “We are thrilled to welcome Aisha to the team and look forward to the vision and technical leadership she will bring to our mission.”

“For two decades I have been focused on how the government can be more successful in transitioning materials from the research phase all the way to fielded systems,” said Haynes. “SMI’s ability to align industry and academia to federal agencies’ strategies gives me the opportunity to continue my mission to ensure we get the right materials to the warfighters when they need them and remain competitive.”

A Capitol View asked Dr. Haynes to sketch out her SMI vision.

CV: What is your primary goal as you take on this new role?

AH: We need a better technology pipeline. My intent is to help SMI clients that are developing novel materials and manufacturing processes to get better aligned with the Department of Defense’s needs, so they can more effectively insert their technologies to meet DoD’s technological gaps.

CV: What do you consider the biggest gap?

AH: The biggest gap is not technological. It is the ability to translate and transition materials out of research and out of the science and technology base. There are always going to be better materials than what we are currently using. The problem is we can’t get them across the ‘valley of death” fast enough.

CV: What is needed to build more bridges?

AH: More can be done to catalyze the S&T community and provide resources to access the tools infrastructure needed to mature these technologies, whether it be to leverage a new high-strength, lightweight alloy or the next semiconductor packaging material.

For one, more testing capabilities are needed. At the same time, the government creates IP in the hopes that industry can scale it, mass produce it and commercialize it so it can be integrated into a fielded system. Industry needs more visibility into what those government investments are.

The goal is to help align the industrial side – the folks who are writing proposals – with the government side. And if industry can shape and inform some of those investments, I see that as a win-win.

Read the SMI press release: Pentagon emerging tech leader Dr. Aisha Haynes joins SMI as vice president

RESEARCH

‘WELCOME NEWS’: In a positive development for many of our clients, the One Big Beautiful Bill signed into law by President Donald Trump restores the ability of companies to deduct research and development expenses from their taxes annually, instead of spreading them out over five years.

Why it matters: “Sound national policy has prevailed once again, with the understanding that R&D is essential for an economy or a country to compete and prevail in our technology-driven world,” said SMI Senior Advisor David Maass, who has been helping us make the case to policymakers for the change. “Tech firms comprise more than a third of the S&P 500 and are one of the most competitive segments of the U.S. economy. For them, and the US economy as whole, this is welcome news.”

What gives? It doesn’t mean that the damage since the five-year provision was enacted by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 can be restored. “Sadly, prior tax policy degraded U.S. capacity to perform this vital work,” asserted Maass. “While industry will undoubtedly respond by rebuilding R&D capacity over a period of time, some of this experience and capacity has been permanently lost.”

Get up to speed: Big Beautiful Bill R&D: Understanding OBBB Impact

Plus: The One Big Beautiful Bill Passed: Learn What’s Changing

BUDGET

SPENDING SPRINT: We caught up with SMI VP David Bortnick for some analysis on the tax, spending and policy bills that are working their way through the legislative process this budget season ahead of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1.

While the annual appropriations process is inching along on Capitol Hill, “there’s already talk of a continuing resolution,” said Bortnick. “Thus far, only one of twelve appropriations bills have passed through either the House or the Senate.”

Defense spending looms largest, with the House version of the Defense Appropriations Act clocking in at $832 billion. That would bring the total to a trillion dollars when combined with the recently passed OBBB, which provides an additional $156 billion for defense, including for shipbuilding, air and missile defense, munitions, and defense supply chain resiliency.

Go deeper: Proposed defense funding in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act

Nuclear boost: We’re also expecting a significant boost in the nuclear weapons complex at the Pentagon and Department of Energy.

The Trump administration’s budget proposes a 26 percent increase in nuclear weapons spending — from $69 billion to $87 billion. Major programs slated to benefit include the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program and the Sea Launched Cruise Missile-Nuclear, while additional investments are being made in plutonium pit production for nuclear warheads.

Golden opportunity? Meanwhile, all eyes remain on President Trump’s Golden Dome initiative to build a space-based missile shield. A new request for information is out, while Democratic lawmakers are raising serious questions about the price tag and viability.

More weapons news: Ukraine celebrates Trump’s weapons reversal, but the ‘devil’s in the details’

Policy chops: Meanwhile, the Senate and House are working their way through the National Defense Authorization Act, the annual defense policy bill.

The Senate Armed Services Committee approved its version, which authorizes $32 billion more than the administration’s request. The legislation includes major provisions of the FORGED Act to overhaul defense acquisition. The House Armed Services Committee also approved its version this week.

Energy cuts: Renewable energy is on the chopping block more than ever with newly proposed cuts by the Department of Energy. The reductions would take money away from projects already budgeted for solar and wind, according to The New York Times.

Leading Democrats on the House and Senate energy panels called it a “reckless decision.” They added: “This isn’t a bureaucratic misstep — it’s a deliberate, partisan effort to sabotage bipartisan law and redirect funding.”

Meanwhile, a new executive order from President Trump would also sunset any subsidies that remain for wind and solar, in order to “build upon and strengthen the repeal of, and modifications to, wind, solar, and other ‘green’ energy tax credits in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”

Campaign issue: Expect clean energy advocates to make the cuts a campaign issue in the 2026 congressional elections.

More energy spending news: House Committee Releases FY26 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill

Space cuts: NASA is also in line for big cuts – in both money and personnel – under new Trump administration plans. Science funding alone would be slashed nearly 50 percent, setting off alarms in both parties in Congress.

Not so fast: Expect major pushback on Capitol Hill; bipartisan legislation is in the works to reverse the science cuts.

Plus: Industry lobbies to protect Commerce space office at risk of cuts

And: Over 2,000 senior staff set to leave NASA under agency push

ENERGY

A GENUINE BREAKTHROUGH’: SMI is proud to support trailblazers in battery technology as they make dramatic leaps in reducing our reliance on foreign sources for technologies and materials that are critical for our energy resilience and national security.

Siyu Huang, CEO and co-founder of Factorial, outlined in a new commentary in Forbes the need to prioritize solid-state batteries for drones and other military hardware to ensure sufficient power for increasingly advanced platforms.

A false choice: “Military commanders shouldn’t have to choose between keeping a drone in the air longer or equipping it with better sensors,” she wrote. “Emergency response teams shouldn’t have to recall drones for recharging in the middle of tracking a wildfire’s spread.”

That’s where the company’s approach comes into play. “Solid-state battery technology represents a genuine breakthrough in energy storage, offering superior performance, enhanced safety and greater resilience in extreme environments,” Huang continued. “Independent testing and research from Argonne National Laboratory, Cornell and Duke, among others, demonstrate the national interest in unlocking this technology.”

‘RESILIENT AND INDEPENDENT’: Another SMI client, Ferroglobe, is leading the way in alternatives to the ever-important graphite, a key component in nearly every electric battery that goes into EVs, drones, submarines, and more.

China currently controls the global supply of graphite, which means we must find alternatives for the material in critically important anodes, the positively charged electrodes that are central to electric batteries.

“To build a resilient and independent battery supply chain, the United States must secure a domestic alternative to graphite,” VP Bill Hightower writes with Jonathan Tan, CEO and co-founder of Coreshell, in a new commentary in RealClearDefense. “Fortunately, such an alternative already exists in the form of metallurgical silicon, a critical material currently produced in significant quantities by U.S. industry.”

Wide range of applications: They note that “advances in battery technology have made it possible to incorporate metallurgical silicon directly into battery anodes, offering a path to reduce reliance on graphite.” The innovation, they argue, “can deliver significantly higher energy density and faster charging, improving battery performance for a wide range of defense and commercial applications.”

DEFENSE

ELECTRONIC DOMINANCE: SMI client Pacific Defense has achieved a series of recent milestones as it becomes a go-to for the U.S. military’s cutting-edge electronic warfare systems.

The company recently secured a pair of Navy contracts to integrate a network of sensors and signal processing suites and to demonstrate “an Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) enabled common Electronic Warfare (EW) sensor-effector capability.”

Pacific Defense, headquartered in El Segundo, CA, is unlocking the power of commercial technology to counter emerging threats from adversaries by more effectively and quickly effectively leveraging the electromagnetic spectrum.

‘EXPONENTIALLY BETTER’: Another SMI client, Govini, continues to provide Pentagon acquisition leaders and program managers with unsurpassed insight into supply chains with software tools that accelerate and maximize procurement outcomes.

Senior VP Jeffrey Jeb Nadaner, who served as a top Pentagon industrial base official in the first Trump administration, is also shaping the debate over how to modernize defense acquisition.

Closing the gap: Nowhere is that more urgent than when it comes to our stocks of critical munitions, he writes in a new commentary in DefenseScoop. “The potential gap between our military needs and industrial throughput is jarring…It calls not only for expanding the numbers and variety of munitions suppliers, but also for deploying the most innovative software in the Defense Department to proactively and assertively oversee them for outcomes.”

Now or never: “…Harnessing the industrial base we have exponentially better than we currently do is within our power now, with defense acquisition software to increase yield,” he writes.

FOR YOUR RADAR: We’re also tracking a series of upcoming DoD events to help clients seize new opportunities.

One is high-level Navy briefings on August 7 on plans to invest in advanced manufacturing to bolster maritime readiness. Also, an industry day hosted by the Defense Logistics Agency on September 3 will focus on “strengthening the defense supply chain by addressing such challenges as demand forecasting, asset visibility, and inventory management.”

ICYMI: New Pentagon directive on “Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance.”

MANUFACTURING

FORWARD MARCH: SMI is working with a coalition of footwear manufacturers and trade groups to press Congress this year to close a major loophole that benefits foreign manufacturers of combat boots for the U.S. military.

New bipartisan legislation, the Better Outfitting Our Troops (BOOTs) Act, will expand current uniform regulations to ensure the combat boots worn by the U.S. military are 100% made and sourced in the USA to comply with the Berry Amendment.

Current regulations permit soldiers to purchase foreign-made boots that mimic the appearance of regulation boots but fall far short in quality and durability.

Why it matters: This loophole leaves troops vulnerable to injury and undermines a domestic supply chain that is critical for national security. In the event of a major conflict, the current clothing and textile supply chain would be too fragile to meet demand, according to a recent DoD-funded wargame.

The House Armed Services Committee has adopted the legislation as part of the annual National Defense Authorization Act.

Plus: All US military boots should be made in America, lawmakers contend

STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS

UP, UP AND AWAY: SMI’s Strategic Communications practice is once again pleased to partner with the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics at its annual ASCEND and AVIATION forums taking place later this month in Las Vegas.

We will be supporting the world’s largest aerospace technical society as it convenes government and industry leaders and the media for a week of discussions on how to “accelerate humanity’s off-world future” and drive a “new era of urgency for sustainable and efficient growth in civil and military aviation.”