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Many observers now think its unlikely the National Quantum Initiative Act of 2018 will actually get reauthorized this year. Its up for a second five-year commitment and there is finally a bill in congress (H.R.6213 National Quantum Initiative Reauthorization Act). That said, the legislative logjam is such that reauthorization may have to wait.

One long-time observer noted, These authorization bills are interesting and nice, but are really not essential. It is the appropriation bills and the policy directions they contain that really matter. As the saying goes, Follow the money. The good news is that each Congress lasts for two years. That is why we are only on the 118th Congress. So given that we have another year to go, I would say there is a decent chance this will be acted on in the 118th Congress. However, the bad news is that if it isnt, the 119th Congress that starts in January of 2025 will start fresh, so the reauthorization bill has to be reintroduced.

In the follow the money line of thought, a new National Quantum Initiative Supplement to the Presidents FY 2024 Budget was just released (Dec 1) and may provide directional guidance, at least to the Presidents spending plans. The new report, prepared by the Subcommittee on Quantum Information Science Committee of the Science of The National Science & Technology Council, also provides updated background on NQIAs mission as well as spotlighting a few accomplishments so far.

Think of it as reasonably quick reading for the Holiday season for quantum community watchers. For the brave reader, the report has an eye chart figure at the end attempting to summarize key timeline and implementation steps for NQIA (also included at end of this brief article).

As seen below, budgets ramped up quickly more than doubling from 2019 to 2022 (slide below). The report doesnt have precise tables but it looks like on the order of $3plus billion were spent on QIS in those years. The report writers suggest the budget will close down in 2023 and the 2024 request is for less than $1 billion.

As noted in the proposed budget, Overall federal budgets for U.S. QIS R&D activities [are] aggregated across several agencies including NIST, NSF, DOE, DOD, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Much of the growth in QIS R&D budgets is for NQI activities such as the establishment of a quantum consortium [The Quantum Economic Development Consortium] by NIST, the NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes (QLCIs), the DOE National QIS Research Centers, and the coordination and strengthening of core QIS programs across many agencies.

Its good to remember that NQI work encompasses a good deal more than quantum computing. Here the lest of principal component areas from the report along with that budget breakdown and the breakdown by federal agency spending (slides below):

Much of the report covers familiar ground but there is a dedicated section highlighting accomplishments; its broken down by the agency doing the work and is worth scanning. Shown below is a bulleted list of representative advances by NIST included in the report. There are somewhat similar lists of advances by other agencies. There are also a few sidebars summarizing technical advances in areas ranging from superconducting qubit development, to erasure qubits and mid-circuit measurements, and to testing quantum sensors used in pacific rim.

Bulleted list of NIST-led advances from the report:

All in all, its a report, but a quickly navigable report for those broadly familiar with the quantum information sciences. Lastly, shown below is the eye-chart depicting NQI implementation to date.

Link to the National Quantum Initiative Supplement to the Presidents FY 2024 Budget, https://www.quantum.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/NQI-Annual-Report-FY2024.pdf

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NQIA Reauthorization Unlikely Soon, but New Report Suggests Budget Directions - HPCwire