Provide funding for research into lightsaber technology.

Lightsabers and the technology acquired through their research could prove quite useful.
Firstly, lasers could yet prove useful for national security purposes (though it is a misguided notion that lightsabers would be made of lasers as this would be impractical, more likely it will be made of plasma).
The plasma would have to be contained via magnetic fields. Learning on how to create and control magnetic fields would be useful in other areas such as terraforming, when we are ready to colonize space, i.e. the moon. This is because magnetic fields protect the earth from solar winds.
Also, lightsabers would require an immense power source. Carbon nanotubes are potentially capable of storing such quantities of energy and could therefore be applied in other industries as a new type of battery.