ITIF

States have moved many public services online, but the legal steps to get married remain largely paper-based. Modernizing marriage licensing, recording, and certificates would reduce costs, save time, and make the major life event easier for American families.

Maintaining R&D leadership in advanced industries is critical to U.S. economic competitiveness and national power. But on a size- and wage-adjusted basis, China is rapidly gaining ground. Congress needs to boost corporate R&D incentives to prevent America from falling behind.

The United States is at serious risk of becoming dependent on China for a wide array of key technologies and products, which would significantly shift the global balance of techno-economic power. Only fundamental policy change can potentially keep the United States from defeat.

China is on the march to dominate advanced industries that underpin national power in the 21st century. To protect U.S. economic strength and national security, policymakers must jettison old techno-economic and trade policy doctrines and adopt a new national power industry strategy.

Instead of treating manufacturing as a monolith to be revived, policymakers must focus on national power industries. These industries protect U.S. national defense and economic security, and are eroding at an alarming rate.

Governments are entering a critical phase in the adoption of AI. It is already contributing to everyday public sector work, and the question is no longer whether to adopt AI, but how to do so both effectively and responsibly. The Public Sector AI Adoption Index 2026 focuses on the human side of AI adoption, examining how it is experienced by public servants every day.

Mandatory adoption of EU-style digital rules amounts to regulatory imperialism for many countries in the Global South. It limits technology adoption, raises compliance costs, and undermines the ability of local firms to compete with Western ones.

Competitiveness in the global space economy should be a priority for the United States, but ineffective regulations weigh down the American commercial space industry. While last year’s executive order was a good start, additional regulatory reforms are necessary to address key roadblocks to U.S. space capabilities.

Machine tools are key to and indicative of the health of a nation’s manufacturing sector. The United States lags behind in both the production and consumption of machine tools, especially compared with other high-wage economies.

“Non-tariff attacks” on U.S. tech companies are not just tax and regulatory hurdles—they are also eroding America’s strategic edge. Washington must identify, deter, and counter these measures in order to prevent ceding U.S. technology leadership to other nations.

NIH-funded research supports the foundation for industry to develop vaccines and therapies, exemplifying deep public-private R&D complementarity. As global competition intensifies, expanding NIH funding will be key to protecting American health, supporting U.S. biopharmaceutical competitiveness, and ensuring national power and security.

Despite evidence to the contrary, a persistent narrative during the past two administrations has been that corporate power is getting increasingly concentrated, ergo antitrust breakups are warranted. But the latest Census Bureau data once again puts the lie to that argument.

Electricity demand is growing rapidly and starting to strain the grid. Instead of slowing the growth of data centers, the United States should deploy new technologies and strategies to efficiently increase grid capacity while accelerating new generation and transmission.

U.S. export controls on semiconductor sales to China reduce U.S. chipmakers’ revenues, lower their R&D investment capabilities, and reduce industry employment. As such, U.S. policymakers should keep semiconductor export controls to a minimum.

China’s campaign of economic espionage against the United States spans cyber intrusions, insider theft, and technology transfer disguised as collaboration. Washington must recognize that Beijing is operating an elaborate espionage ecosystem and take strategic measures to disrupt it.

Certain Chinese companies obscure their ownership and strategic intent in the U.S. economy, gaining access to markets, talent, intellectual property, and subsidies. These practices advance China’s industrial and military goals and necessitate stronger oversight measures.

Huawei is a more innovative company today than it was before the U.S. government sought to choke its supply chain. This case should serve as a lesson: U.S. techno-economic power is weaker than most think, and sanctions often hurt U.S. competitiveness more than China’s.

A productive approach to emerging workplace technologies would focus on two overarching goals: 1) accelerating development, testing, and adoption, and 2) supporting positive uses of the technology while mitigating negative ones.

The implementation of the Digital Services Act’s transparency obligations fails to provide meaningful insight into online platforms’ content moderation decisions, the extraterritorial effects of the act, and its effects on online speech.

Antitrust policy relies too heavily on static models that focus on prices and market shares while treating innovation as external. A dynamic approach that views competition as a process of innovation is better suited to guiding policy in today’s technology-driven economy.

While critics attack “big tech” from many angles, these five companies develop frontier technologies that require large-scale development, build infrastructure ranging from data centers to subsea cables, and create spillovers from health care to nuclear energy.

Chinese electric vehicle makers have benefited from aggressive state-sponsored mercantilist policies that have enabled them to produce lower-cost vehicles than foreign competitors can. They should not be allowed to manufacture their products in the United States.

Cutting federal investments in R&D may appear to save billions in the budget, but it could cost the economy trillions. In fact, ITIF estimates that cutting federal R&D by 20 percent would cost the U.S. economy up to almost $1.5 trillion compared with China’s growth pace.

Congress should reform and refocus the Universal Service Fund. It spends too much money, prioritizes the wrong problems, and funds it all with a high, sector-specific tax rate. Congress should reduce the overall size of the program and fund it with general revenue.

Digital services are the key to unlocking growth for small- and medium-sized enterprises in today’s economy. They help firms overcome financial constraints, close skills gaps, and boost productivity. Policymakers should incentivize SMEs to capitalize on those opportunities.

France has embarked on an ambitious program to build at least six new large nuclear reactors, applying lessons from recent overruns and delays. While success is far from guaranteed, there are important lessons for the United States as it seeks to jump-start its own nuclear sector through recent ambitious executive orders.

Chinese e-commerce platforms facilitate sales of counterfeit products, threatening U.S. intellectual property, fair competition, and consumer safety. Policymakers should take action to hold these platforms accountable and protect American consumers and businesses.

Obesity affects over 42 percent of U.S. adults, costing the nation more than $400 billion annually. Traditional weight-loss methods alone have proved to be insufficient in addressing this growing public health burden. But GLP-1 receptor agonists now offer the potential to profoundly transform obesity care. Public policies should support their wider adoption.