Innovation through Incrementalism: Rep. Jim Himes, Ranking Member, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

Building the Base

In this episode of Building the Base, Hondo Geurts and Lauren Bedula sit down with Ranking Member Jim Himes (D-CT), who serves on both the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Financial Services Committee. Drawing from his unique background spanning Wall Street and public service, Congressman Himes discusses the critical intersection of technology innovation, national security, and America's industrial base. He shares candid insights on the challenges of government innovation, the evolving threat landscape from China, and why immigration remains America's secret weapon in the global competition for technological supremacy. The conversation also explores the cultural shifts needed within both Congress and the defense establishment to embrace the iterative, failure-tolerant approach essential for modern software development and emerging technologies.

Five key takeaways from today's episode:

1. The shift from hardware to software has fundamentally changed defense acquisition, Rep. Himes explains, requiring iterative development through failure and constant end-user contact—a capability traditional defense primes weren't prepared for, though progress is being made through innovative programs like DIU and Kessel Run.
2. America's two greatest advantages over China in innovation, according to Rep. Himes, are immigration and a chaotic entrepreneurial ecosystem that treats failure as graduate-level education for the next venture, advantages that must be preserved and leveraged.
3. Congressional culture remains risk-averse toward failure, Rep. Himes notes, with members more focused on finding the next "Solyndra" to investigate rather than creating the psychological safety necessary for breakthrough innovation.
4. Supply chain vulnerabilities exposed by COVID-19 and the Ukraine conflict have created new appreciation for defense industrial base resilience, but Rep. Himes argues the tension between economic efficiency and strategic security requires nuanced thinking.
5. Emerging threats like biosynthesis and quantum computing pose existential risks that require both cutting-edge research investment and a return to shared empirical truth, Rep. Himes warns, making the intersection of technology policy and national security more critical than ever.