The U.S. Senate passed this week legislation seeking to strengthen America’s telecommunications providers against foreign adversaries, U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) said.
The Foreign Adversary Communications Transparency (FACT) Act would require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to identify entities that hold FCC licenses, authorizations or other grants of authority, that are owned wholly or in part by foreign adversarial governments, including the governments of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
“With the Senate passage of my FACT Act, we mark a crucial step in the mission to secure America’s tech and telecommunication markets from foreign adversaries. We cannot allow adversarial regimes like communist China and Russia to infiltrate our communication networks and undermine our people and country, which is why I introduced and shepherded this bill through the Senate. I’m grateful for the bipartisan support of my colleagues, and I look forward to getting this bill to the President’s desk to be signed into law,” Fischer said.
Fischer said that until now, there has been no public disclosure of companies with links to foreign adversaries operating within the U.S. telecommunication and technology markets. Although the FCC is prohibited from granting licenses and authorizations deemed a national security threat, some entities with ties to adversarial foreign governments continue to hold certain approvals, something which Fischer said deserves more transparency.