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) applauded the passage by voice vote in the House of Representatives of the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act (HR 4998), their bipartisan bill to help secure America’s telecommunications supply chain:
“Securing our networks from malicious foreign interference is critical to America’s wireless future. Companies like Huawei and its affiliates pose a significant threat to America’s commercial and security interests because a lot of communications providers rely heavily on their equipment. This bipartisan legislation will protect our nation’s communications networks from foreign adversaries, and help small and rural providers remove and replace suspect network equipment. We look forward to swift action in the Senate so we can send this bill to the President’s desk and protect our national security," the leaders said.
The legislation reaffirms a bipartisan commitment from last Congress to protect America’s communications networks’ supply chain, 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, administered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 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; and
* Helps the Federal government better share supply chain security information with carriers, particularly smaller carriers, to help keep this equipment out of our networks in the future.
