Senators Target Huawei, 5G Security in National Defense Authorization Amendments
Senators are aiming to attach amendments this week to the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act targeting Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei, 5G security and changes to the emergency alerts apparatus, among other telecom policy issues, as the chamber begins floor consideration of the measure. The Senate voted 88-11 Wednesday to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S-1790, a precursor to consideration of amendments.
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The annual NDAA renewal has repeatedly been viewed as a potential vehicle for advancing telecom-related legislation, including the House Armed Services Committee's version of the FY 2020 measure (see 1906130040). Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters he expects floor consideration of S-1790 to take “up to a week” given expectations of “a lot of member participation” in the form of amendments. “It'll be open for amendment” and “I have no desire to prevent” floor votes on those proposals, he said.
At least three amendments would address national security concerns about Huawei, including language from Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah. The Chinese company has long drawn lawmaker scrutiny and faces potential reinstatement later this year of a Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security notice adding it and its affiliates to a list of entities subject to export administration regulations (see 1905160081).
Romney's proposal would set up specific conditions for Commerce to lift BIS' addition of Huawei from the blacklist, including a finding that the company and its executives haven't violated U.S. or UN sanctions and haven't engaged in theft of U.S. intellectual property during the preceding five years. The proposal also requires Commerce to rule that Huawei isn't a threat to U.S. telecom infrastructure. Romney filed his amendment in response to concerns that President Donald Trump could seek an end to restrictions against Huawei as part of the administration's ongoing trade talks with China (see 1905240038).
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, wants to expand the ban on U.S. agencies' use of “risky” technology produced by Huawei or fellow Chinese telecom equipment firm ZTE that was included in the FY 2019 NDAA (see 1808010068). Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., wants to bar Huawei and other companies that federal agencies deem pose a risk to U.S. telecom firms under Trump's May executive order (see 1905150066) from filing patent infringement lawsuits in the U.S. or otherwise seek patent relief under federal law.
Senate Commerce Security Subcommittee Chairman Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, has met resistance in his bid to attach language from the U.S. 5G Leadership Act (S-1625) to a coming manager's amendment for S-1790, though he told reporters he's continuing to negotiate. Sullivan earlier this month signed on as a co-sponsor of S-1625, which would require the FCC complete its work on an NPRM to counter the threat from companies deemed a security threat to U.S. telecom networks or the communications supply chain (see 1812210032). It would create a grant program to make up to $700 million available annually to help U.S. communications providers remove from their networks Chinese equipment determined to threaten national security (see 1905230066).
“If we don't get” S-1625 into the NDAA manager's amendment, “you'll see a lot of interest” via other legislation, Sullivan said. He cited the Secure 5G and Beyond Act (S-893), which would require the president develop a strategy for ensuring security of 5G networks and infrastructure (see 1903270065). Lead sponsor Sen. Jon Cornyn, R-Texas, previously viewed the NDAA as a possible vehicle for advancing the bill (see 1903280064). “The good news is these are all very bipartisan [measures] and I think there's a lot of urgency on the topic,” Sullivan said.
The 5G-related amendments up for potential attachment to S-1790 include language in a larger amendment from Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va. It would require the director of national intelligence develop a report on the extent to which “global and regional adoption” of foreign-made 5G technology has on U.S. national security. The study should in part look at how the nation's “strategy to reduce foreign influence and political pressure in international standard-setting bodies” could help mitigate the threat, the amendment said.
Warner wants language that would make it the sense of Congress that the secretary of defense “should work with” the FCC “to identify [current DOD] bands of spectrum” that can be reallocated for 5G use and that “to the maximum extent practicable, are globally harmonized or capable of being globally harmonized.”
Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, wants to include his Authenticating Local Emergencies and Real Threats Act, which he first filed in response to the January 2018 false missile emergency alert in Hawaii (see 1801160054). The Alert Act language would give the federal government sole authority to issue missile threat alerts and pre-empt state and local governments' role (see 1802070052). Sullivan and Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., signed on as amendment co-sponsors. The Senate cleared the Alert Act last year by unanimous consent (see 1806270001). Schatz and others believe it has a better chance of passage by hitching a ride on the NDAA vehicle, lobbyists told us. The House never considered the measure last year.