The U.S. Senate on Oct. 23 passed bipartisan legislation led by U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) to help protect America’s telecommunications against foreign adversaries, advancing the measure to the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Senate approved the Foreign Adversary Communications Transparency (FACT) Act, S. 259, which Sen. Fischer sponsored on Jan. 27 alongside lead original cosponsor U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) to require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to annually publish a list of entities that hold a license or other authorization granted by the FCC and have ties to specified foreign countries.
“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,” Sen. Fischer said. “We cannot allow adversarial regimes like communist China and Russia to infiltrate our communication networks and undermine our people and country. 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.”
Specifically, S. 259 would require the FCC to publicly identify entities that hold FCC licenses, authorizations, or other grants of authority that are owned, wholly or partially, by foreign adversarial governments, including China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
Although the FCC is prohibited from granting licenses or authorizations deemed a national security threat, some entities with ties to adversarial foreign governments continue to hold certain approvals, according to Sen. Fischer, who said that more transparency is necessary.