WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Republican Leader Greg Walden (R-OR), Reps. Doris Matsui (D-CA), and Brett Guthrie (R-KY) introduced the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act (HR 4459), a bipartisan bill to help secure America’s telecommunications supply chain.
“America’s wireless future depends on our networks being secure from malicious foreign interference. Our telecommunications companies rely heavily on equipment manufactured and provided by foreign companies that, in some cases, as with companies such as Huawei and its affiliates, can pose a significant threat to America’s commercial and security interests," the four Committee leaders said. “This bipartisan legislation will protect our nation’s communications networks from foreign adversaries by helping small and rural wireless providers root-out suspect network equipment and replace it with more secure equipment. We must get this done to protect our national security."
This bill and others will be considered at the Communications and Technology Subcommittee hearing on supply chain security and spectrum legislation that was announced last week. The legislation reaffirms a bipartisan commitment from last Congress to protect the supply chain from threats, and follows an Executive Order issued by the White House in May designed to prohibit Huawei and other equipment from existing within America’s telecommunications networks.
The bipartisan Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act:
* Prohibits the use of federal funds to purchase communications equipment or services from any company that poses a national security risk to American communications networks.
* Requires the FCC to establish the Secure and Trusted Communications Reimbursement Program to assist small communications providers with the costs of removing prohibited equipment or services from their networks and replacing the prohibited equipment with more secure communications equipment or services.
