SPIE Optics + Photonics 2025: Government affairs update

06 Aug 2025

SPIE’s Jennifer O’Bryan details issues around Trump’s policies and how industry can respond.

By Matthew Peach in San Diego

Appealing to O&P community: Jennifer O’Bryan, SPIE Government Affairs Director.

SPIE Government Affairs Director Jennifer O'Bryan yesterday presented attendees to Optics & Photonics 2025 with an overview of actions by the Trump administration and U.S. Congress that have impacted the photonics community, as well as what SPIE is doing in reaction.

Speaking on the Expo Stage, O’Bryan pulled a large crowd clearly eager to find out more about the rapidly-changing landscape of science funding, taxes, and tariffs, which have this year made waves across the domestic and international markets of photonics technologies — and beyond.

She referenced the Trump administration’s One Big, Beautiful Bill, which was passed on July 3rd. “I want to go through some of the provisions that are important to our community, and at a time where there are not a lot of good things going on in Washington DC, right now, there are actually some nuggets in here that could be beneficial to our community,” she said.

“One of these is that the Bill reintroduces a tax rule, allowing companies to fully deduct domestic research costs in the year that they occurred, which is a big benefit for companies binding money on research.”

Some positives

O’Bryan pointed out many negatives in the Bill, but also said there were some positives. She noted that for universities, the Bill modifies the current 1.4% endowment tax, and creates a tiered system that brings that rate all the way up to 8% if the institution’s endowment exceeds $2 million per student. “So it creates a new system for that endowment tax,” she said. “It has also rescinded unobligated funds in the Inflation Reduction Act that was passed under the Biden administration, and it will phase out the Clean Energy Production Tax Credit by the end of 2027.”

Moving on to some potential benefits, O’Bryan said, “On the positive side, the Bill has added $25 billion for the Golden Dome missile defense shield, which includes $7.2 billion for military space-based sensors, $5.6 billion for space-based capabilities, and $250 million to develop directed energy capabilities. So a good chunk of money that could be making its way to our community,” she said.

Besides that, $250 million was also provided to DARPA, for its quantum marketing initiatives, and $4 billion for the U.S. Nuclear Security Administration. And $150 million was provided to the DOE (Energy) toward developing AI models for science and engineering.

Other positive aspects the Bill include yearly $10 billion funding for NASA’s programs, restoration of the Federal Communications Commission’s authority to auction spectrum through 2034, and billions of dollars for new icebreakers, for research in the polar regions. “So, actually, a pretty good chunk of Federal funding that is now law and will be making it out into the community,” she said.

‘Complicated federal spending’

Moving on to more problematic aspects of the Bill, O’Bryan said, “In an area that is far more murky, appropriations in Federal spending has gotten complicated in a way that is quite unprecedented. Currently, the Federal Government is being funded through what’s called a Continuing Resolution [CR]. So at the end of the fiscal year, which is September 30th, Congress will need to either pass a fiscal year 2026 appropriations bill or they will need to pass another continuing resolution to keep the Federal Government running.”

O’Bryan warned that Congress is not at all close to coming to an agreement on what these bills will look like. “So it sets up a weird stage where, I think, a shut-down or a short-term CR, or a long-term CR all on the table come around September 30th. The other aspect to this is what the Administration is doing in regards to reduction for retirements, combined with a hiring freeze,” she said.

She noted that the combination of these activities has meant that the NSF has lost about one third of its staff since the start of this Trump Administration. “NASA says they have lost thousands of their agency civil servants and DOE lab officials are considering laying off more than 3000 staff. The Trump administration has also frozen or canceled funding by simply refusing to appropriate it if it goes against what they consider their agenda,” she said.

Tariffs

O’Bryan then turned to tariffs, a topic that has hardly been out of the headlines since the Administration announced wide-ranging increases in April. She said, “The Administration is using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to establish these broad tariffs on a host of countries around the world.”

“This [deployment] is currently being challenged in the Appeals Court, which has not ruled yet on the legality of using the International Emergency Economic Powers act, but the courts are allowing these tariffs to be in place while this case is making its way through the judicial system. Once the Appeals Court does rule, it will almost certainly immediately be appealed by whoever lost, to the Supreme Court,” she said.

O’Bryan added, “As of now, the Trump Administration is moving forward with tariffs. He made a new announcement on August 1st on a whole host of tariffs. For a chunk of the world either their tariffs were increased for goods coming into the US or, for Europe, and some countries in Asia, they negotiated a different deal than whatever percentage was being threatened by the Trump administration.” She pointed out that the Trump administration is also pursuing tariffs related to the semiconductor sector, which would also include semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

Research universities

Switching the focus to the U.S. academic community, O’Bryan noted, “Research universities are having a hard time under the Trump Administration; a total of 60 different universities are being investigated right now for harassment and discrimination.

“A few have negotiated with the Administration to release federal funding that he had frozen as retribution for what he considered to be discriminatory practices, including the University of Pennsylvania, Brown and Colombia, and they agreed to both monetary settlements, as well as policy changes within the university. In addition, some universities have chosen to not negotiate with the administration and currently have court cases trying to unfreeze funding that were going to these universities, including Harvard, University of Michigan, Cornell, and Northwestern,” she said.

SPIE’s responses

O’Bryan then looked at what SPIE has been doing to respond to all of these changes that are “impacting our community”, and suggested various ways that interested parties can get more involved. “We are joining with other scientific societies to advocate for our community, because honestly it’s not just about optics and photonics, it’s the whole scientific enterprise that's being affected by all these changes.”

“SPIE is working with the American Physical Society (APS) and a lot of other scientific societies, to produce letters, flyers, and and a lot of different activities to help push Congress to be more bold in standing up to some of the changes the Trump administration has been making. We are matching constituents across the U.S. with their Senators, as well as making targeted op-eds in specific states [AK, SD, KS, IN, TN, AL, PA, WV, and ME] to try and influence them to more boldly represent the scientific community within Congress,” she said.

Appealing directly to the audience, O’Bryan said, “If you reside in one of these states or have part of your company there, then I’d be interested in talking to you and get you more directly involved with these activities. In addition to that, APS is gathering impact stories about the benefits of federal funding and the federal agencies, specifically NSF, NIST, DOE, NASA, and DOD-funded research.”

O'Bryan concluded her presentation with an invitation to the SPIE Photonics Industry Summit, in Washington DC, next month. She said: “it is more timely than ever to be in DC. We are hosting this one-day event on September 18th. We will be bringing high-level administration officials at the various departments to come talk about their programs and spending and what they need from the community, sometimes it can be pretty technical, but it’s very good.”