The Commerce Department is proposing new rules that could require U.S. cloud service providers and their foreign resellers to follow know-your-customer (KYC) requirements, a step the agency said would prevent those services from being used to aid cyberattacks and to train artificial intelligence models that threaten U.S. national security. The proposed regulations are specifically aimed at preventing “foreign malicious cyber actors” from using U.S. infrastructure-as-a-service products to steal American intellectual property and sensitive data, commit espionage, and train large AI models for cyberattacks on U.S. critical infrastructure.
The Biden administration announced on Jan. 26 that it's temporarily pausing pending decisions on liquefied natural gas exports while it reviews criteria for approving those projects.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is undergoing a restructuring to separate its licensing work from its efforts to evaluate and protect emerging and foundational technologies, said Eileen Albanese, director of the Office of National Security and Technology Transfer Controls. She said the agency plans to hire at least three new senior officials to usher in the reorganization, which will help BIS meet its “broader mandate.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security has been experiencing delays in semiconductor-related export license applications due to a higher number of disagreements with the other agencies that also review those licenses, a senior BIS official said this week.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, House Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash.; NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson; Arati Prabhakar, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; and FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez are among those scheduled to speak at NTIA’s spectrum policy symposium on Feb. 1, NTIA said Thursday. Other speakers include DOD Chief Information Officer John Sherman and Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser-cyber and emerging technology. The symposium starts at 9 a.m. at the National Press Club, with livestream availability.
FCC commissioners unanimously approved an order Thursday requiring carriers to implement location-based routing (LBR) for calls and real-time texts to 911 within six months of when the rules become effective for nationwide providers and 24 months for small providers.
Wireless carriers in comments this week condemned a “dynamic approach” to data and other proposals for California’s low-income program. The California Public Utilities Commission received feedback Wednesday on an Oct. 30 staff proposal for setting California LifeLine specific support amounts (SSA) and minimum service standards (MSS). Some urged the CPUC to tap the brakes, especially with uncertainty about continued funding for the federal affordable connectivity program (ACP).
Emergency alerts would go more multilingual under a proposal on the FCC's February agenda. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel teed up that and other agenda items on Wednesday. They will be released Thursday. Also on the agenda is a draft in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing (ISAM) licensing framework, further robocalls rules, and a revisiting of wireless mics. In addition, an Enforcement Bureau item and a Media Bureau adjudicatory matter are on the agenda.
Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., is considering attaching an amendment to a pending national security supplemental spending bill that would allocate $3.08 billion to fully fund the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program, communications officials and lobbyists said in interviews. Telecom-focused lawmakers are still eyeing FY 2024 appropriations bills as vehicles for allocating rip-and-replace money, and some are pushing to keep using a spectrum legislative package to pay for it. President Joe Biden asked Congress to authorize the additional rip-and-replace money in October as part of a domestic funding supplemental separate from the national security request (see 2310250075).
NTIA is expecting detailed comments from federal agencies this week about the proposed implementation plan for the national spectrum strategy (see 2311130048), Scott Harris, NTIA senior spectrum adviser, said during an FCBA webinar Wednesday. NTIA has shared with the agencies its initial thoughts, he said. Next, it will prepare “a full draft” implementation plan, which it will also share, and “kick off” interagency meetings seeking “government-wide” consensus, Harris added.