He was meant to be the gatekeeper – the man standing between America’s most sensitive research and its greatest rival.
Instead, according to a blistering House investigation, Steven Black presided over a collapse of counterintelligence at the Department of Energy (DOE) that let China feast on US military and nuclear know-how.
And when the reckoning finally came, Black did not lose his paycheck. He kept it.
The 67-year-old former Air Force officer quietly slid into a cushy academic role worth some $200,000 a year – still paid by taxpayers – even as lawmakers now say catastrophic failures under his watch let Beijing benefit from American innovation.
A newly released House report, Containment Breach, paints a devastating portrait of dysfunction inside the DOE’s Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, which Black led from 2011 until 2023.
China, the report concludes, walked away the winner. For more than a decade, the DOE poured hundreds of millions of dollars into cutting-edge research.
The research touched the very core of US military power, from nuclear science to explosives, quantum computing, advanced materials, and physics.
And again and again, according to the House Select Committee on China and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, that research flowed into the hands of Chinese scientists tied to Beijing’s military machine.
Not through espionage – through open collaboration.
According to a blistering House investigation, Steven Black presided over a collapse of counterintelligence at the Department of Energy (DOE)
Beijing has developed hypersonic ballistic missiles and other weapons through research projects with the US
Black, a 21-year Air Force veteran who transitioned into national security roles after leaving the military in 2001, was supposed to stop that. He didn’t, the report alleges.
Worse, lawmakers now say he actively helped bury evidence of the problem.
At the center of the scandal is a federally funded contractor’s counterintelligence report produced between 2019 and 2021.
It warned that DOE-funded research was being exploited by China, including by institutions linked to the People’s Liberation Army.
The report was unclassified. Until it wasn’t.
According to the House investigation, Black’s office classified the document after it was completed – an extraordinary move that blocked it from being widely shared across the department or with Congress.
The report accused Black of ‘effectively burying its contents and preventing accountability.’
‘Classifying a report to conceal systemic failures is inexcusable and undermines the very foundation of research security and integrity,’ says the House investigation.
The consequences were profound.
‘By suppressing critical findings, DOE leadership not only avoided accountability for its research security shortfalls but also initially denied policymakers the information needed to fix vulnerabilities that place US taxpayer-funded research at risk,’ the report states.
The chilling 120-page document goes further.
‘This kind of institutional self-protection fosters the same culture of complacency found across many US universities, one that foreign adversaries readily exploit,’ it states.
‘It leaves the department blind to its own vulnerabilities and unwilling to confront the systemic failures that endanger US research security.’
In plain English: while Washington slept, China advanced.
The DOE is no sleepy science agency. It oversees 17 national laboratories. It bankrolls research tied directly to nuclear weapons development and disposal. It sits at the crossroads of science and national security.
Federally funded research at US labs has helped China leap ahead with nuclear and hypersonic missile technology, a House report warns
The People’s Liberation Army Air Force is now equipped with radar-dodging Chengdu J-20S stealth fighter jets
Supporters of international collaboration argue that openness strengthens US science and attracts global talent.
But the House report makes clear that openness without guardrails became a gift to Beijing.
Federal money flowed to projects involving Chinese state-owned laboratories and universities working hand-in-glove with China’s military. Some were even listed in a Pentagon database of Chinese military companies operating in the US.
China’s armed forces, now nearly two million strong, have raced ahead in hypersonic weapons, stealth fighters, directed-energy systems and electromagnetic launch technology.
And American research helped fuel that rise.
The most damning accusation is not that Black missed the warning signs. It’s that he hid them.
The House report says the classification decision may have even violated a White House executive order that explicitly ‘prohibits classification to conceal wrongdoing, prevent embarrassment, or obstruct oversight.’
Steven Black is never named in the report. But he is unmistakable.
Public records show he served as DOE Director of Intelligence and Counterintelligence from 2011 to 2023 – precisely the period covered by the investigation.
In November 2023, he was abruptly reassigned during the Biden administration.
Back then, Republicans were alarmed. In a letter, Senator Jim Risch and other lawmakers asked why Black had been ‘suddenly and without explanation reassigned,’ and whether it was connected to ‘disturbing findings as to the state of counterintelligence’ at DOE.
The letter warned bluntly that Black ‘should not be reassigned to any office within the department that has a national security mission.’
Among the signatories was then-Senator Marco Rubio – now Secretary of State.
But Black, who lives in a five-bedroom colonial-style home in Dumfries, Virginia, did not leave government service.
Instead, he resurfaced as an adjunct instructor at the National War College, part of the National Defense University, which trains America’s future national security leaders.
The DOE oversees 17 national laboratories and bankrolls research tied directly to nuclear weapons development
It represented a comfortable landing with a taxpayer-funded salary of roughly $200,000 a year.
Black retired in 2024, citing the need to care for his wife, Deborah, who has serious health problems.
He has never publicly responded to the allegations, and did not answer our request for comment.
The buried contractor study was never released to the public. The man at the center of a counterintelligence breakdown walked away quietly.
The Daily Mail spoke with a former DOE staffer who rejected the select committee findings.
Black was honored by Democratic and Republican presidents during his career
Black had classified the contractor’s report to ‘protect sensitive information’ about the department, and shared it with lawmakers through secure back channels, said the source.
The former director may have been reassigned because he did not coordinate properly with his colleagues, the source said. Black, he added, was not dismissed – he had requested a less demanding role.
The DOE told the Daily Mail that it was reviewing the revelations about Black, and ‘takes seriously its responsibility to steward federal funds and safeguard critical research capabilities.’
The department ‘will continue rigorous due diligence and oversight of awards, including those made during the Biden administration, to ensure the integrity and security of DOE programs,’ the statement added.
The House report lands like a thunderclap, with a stark warning that US-funded research has continued flowing to Beijing.
Investigators identified more than 4,300 academic papers published between June 2023 and June this year involving collaborations between DOE-funded scientists and Chinese researchers.
Roughly half involved Chinese researchers affiliated with China’s military or industrial base.
Rep. John Moolenaar, the Michigan Republican who chairs the China select committee, said the findings were chilling.
‘The investigation reveals a deeply alarming problem: The DOE failed to ensure the security of its research, and it put American taxpayers on the hook for funding the military rise of our nation’s foremost adversary,’ he said.
John Moolenaar says US taxpayers have been ‘funding the military rise of our nation’s foremost adversary’
Investigators identified more than 4,300 papers published since June 2023 involving collaborations between DOE-funded scientists and Chinese researchers
Black lives in a charming five-bedroom colonial-style home in Dumfries, Virginia
Moolenaar has pushed legislation to block federal research funding from flowing to partnerships with ‘foreign adversary-controlled’ entities.
The bill passed the House, but has since stalled.
Scientists and university leaders have pushed back hard, warning that broad restrictions could stifle innovation and drive talent overseas.
In an October letter, more than 750 faculty members and senior administrators urged Congress to tread carefully, calling for ‘very careful and targeted measures for risk management.’
The Chinese Embassy, for its part, dismissed the report entirely. It accused the select committee of smearing China ‘for political purposes’ and said the criticism had ‘no credibility.’
‘A handful of US politicians are overstretching the concept of national security to obstruct normal scientific research exchanges,’ embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said.
But the House report is relentless. It says the threat was known. The warnings were clear. And the failures lasted years.