The Treasury Department issued a proposed rule to modify mandatory declaration requirements for certain transactions involving critical technologies. Under the rule, transactions would require a declaration if the critical technology would normally be subject to a U.S. export license. This would be a change from certain declaration requirements for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. outlined under a 2018 pilot program, which based those decisions on whether the transactions met criteria established by the North American Industry Classification System.
The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic made the FCC more determined to eliminate unnecessary regulation, Chairman Ajit Pai said during the Wireless Infrastructure Association’s virtual version of its annual ConnectX. The agency also Tuesday released its draft version of proposed changes to infrastructure rules, proposed by WIA and CTIA (see 2005190058). Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Brendan Carr also spoke.
A Tuesday House Communications Subcommittee FCC oversight teleconference was far tamer than the subpanel’s other examinations of commission business during this Congress (see 1912050043). Most subcommittee members focused on telecom-related COVID-19 legislative proposals. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai emphasized his requests for additional funding. Pai also got additional support from House Communications Republicans for the commission’s recent approval of Ligado’s L-band plan (see 2004200039).
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security is preparing to issue several additional export controls over emerging technologies and is finalizing a long-awaited advance notice of proposed rulemaking for foundational technologies, BIS officials said. The emerging technology controls will be released “within the next few weeks,” an official said, while the foundational technology ANPRM will soon be sent for interagency review and for feedback by technical advisory committee members before being publicly released.
A draft declaratory ruling circulated by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Tuesday clarifies that industry can swap out antennas and other infrastructure on towers without delay under the 2012 Spectrum Act. Commissioner Brendan Carr told us Tuesday that despite the early resistance (see 2005110029) some local governments support the infrastructure clarification and the pandemic underscores the need for building infrastructure quickly.
China said it will take countermeasures to respond to increased U.S. export restrictions against Huawei, calling the changes an “abuse of export controls” and a violation of international trade laws. The restrictions, which place a license requirement on shipments to Huawei for foreign-made chips containing U.S. content, are a “serious threat” to China’s chip industry and supply chains, China’s Commerce Ministry said May 17, according to an unofficial translation. The ministry did not specify what the countermeasures will entail, but state media said China is considering placing U.S. companies on its so-called unreliable entity list and stopping purchases of aircraft from Boeing (see 2005150058).
Unlike Western Europe, the U.S. isn't facing physical attacks on wireless infrastructure by activists who believe 5G helped spread COVID-19. Some municipalities are facing more RF concerns. “We are not aware of any such situations to date within the United States,” an FCC spokesperson emailed last week. “We have provided some social media and online content to reassure the public that this rumor is without merit.”
The FCC extended waivers to help telecom relay service and video relay service providers offer quicker access to subscribers amid concerns over longer wait times during COVID-19 (see 2005080034), in an order Thursday. Two renewed waivers plus two new ones, including allowing registered VRS users to make calls to the U.S. from abroad during the national emergency, are all through June 30.
The Senate Commerce Committee plans a Wednesday vote on confirming FCC Inspector General nominee Chase Johnson, the Spectrum IT Modernization Act (S-3717) and four other tech and cybersecurity measures. Johnson had a March confirmation hearing (see 2003110054). S-3717 would require NTIA to develop a plan for modernizing its IT systems, including “ways to improve the management of covered agencies’ use of Federal spectrum through that infrastructure” and “a time-based automated mechanism” to “share Federal spectrum between covered agencies to collaboratively and dynamically increase access to Federal spectrum.” The bill would also require a GAO study. Senate Commerce will mark up the Identifying Outputs of Generative Adversarial Networks Act (S-2904), which would require the National Science Foundation to support research on deepfakes, other manipulated content and generative adversarial networks that create them. The bill would also direct NSF and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to produce a report on the feasibility of using public-private partnerships to detect deepfakes. The committee will consider the Advanced Technological Manufacturing Act (S-3704), which would expand the number of colleges and universities eligible to compete for NSF grants. Senate Commerce will vote on the Cybersecurity Competitions to Yield Better Efforts to Research the Latest Exceptionally Advanced Problems (Cyber Leap) Act (S-3712), to create a National Cybersecurity Guard Challenges program to “achieve high-priority breakthroughs in cybersecurity by 2028,” including to improve the resiliency of federal networks and systems. The committee will also mark up the Critical Infrastructure Employee Protection Act (S-3728), which would require the Transportation Department to provide for priority testing of “critical infrastructure workers” for COVID-19 and coordinate with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for “priority access” to personal protective equipment. Senate Commerce will also vote on whether to advance the confirmations of Transportation Department Deputy Assistant Secretary-Research and Technology Diana Furchtgott-Roth and Finch Fulton as assistant secretaries of transportation, and Neil Jacobs as NOAA administrator. The executive session will begin at 10 a.m. in G50 Dirksen, the committee said.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., said he's told U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer that he's concerned that some businesses were not able to take advantage of a 90-day deferral to pay duties. “Because of the economic circumstances we find ourselves in, I think providing some relief on that front is sensible,” he said to International Trade Today in a brief hallway interview at the Capitol May 15.