[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 74 (Monday, May 5, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S2750]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                FACT ACT

  Mrs. FISCHER. Madam President, last week, my bill, the Foreign 
Adversary Communications Transparency Act, or the FACT Act, cleared the 
Commerce Committee unanimously. Now it will come before us here on the 
Senate floor for a vote.
  I stand before you today because the threat our foreign adversaries 
pose is not a distant concern. It is real; it is relentless; and it is 
constantly evolving. We cannot afford to wait and deal with the 
consequences. The cost of inaction is too great.
  Congress must anticipate the threats, and we must work together to 
curb the malign influence of foreign adversaries like communist China, 
Russia, Iran, and North Korea. For too long now, we have allowed 
foreign adversarial governments to secure a silent foothold in our 
telecommunications infrastructure.
  Take, for example, Huawei. Huawei, a Chinese-owned telecommunications 
giant, is one of the leading producers of cell phone network equipment. 
This equipment spans across our country and finds its home in most of 
our cellular devices. Over a decade ago, our intelligence Agencies 
began noticing a peculiar pattern of Huawei equipment on cell towers 
across my home State of Nebraska as well as nearby Colorado and 
Montana. That Chinese gear was clustered near sensitive military 
assets, including Nebraska's Offutt Air Force Base and our nuclear 
missile silos.
  Then, just 4 years ago, U.S. intelligence officials sounded the 
alarm. Their investigations found that Huawei could secretly access 
mobile phone networks around the world through backdoors, unbeknownst 
to carriers. And perhaps even more concerning, Huawei has had this 
capability for more than a decade.
  And Huawei's ownership is bankrolled by billions of dollars from the 
Chinese Government. What government freely hands over that kind of 
money without expecting something in return? Despite being based in 
China and having deep connections to the Chinese Communist Party, as 
confirmed by U.S. intelligence communities, the company continues to 
refuse to acknowledge the Chinese Government's influence.
  However, in 2020, under President Trump's administration, the Federal 
Communications Commission designated Huawei as a national security 
threat, and it banned the sale of its telecommunications equipment here 
in our country. This past December, Congress also secured the remaining 
funding to enable smaller rural communications companies to rip that 
risky Chinese-made equipment out of their networks.
  In 2022, the Justice Department charged two Chinese intelligence 
officers with an unsettling crime: attempting to obstruct a Federal 
investigation into Huawei by stealing sensitive case material from a 
U.S. District Attorney's Office.
  Colleagues, I pose to you this question: Why would the Chinese 
Government go to such lengths to interfere in a case involving a so-
called private company in which they have no stake?
  Well, they wouldn't.
  While recent actions to curtail Huawei equipment and those from other 
high-risk Chinese firms are steps in the right direction, they don't go 
far enough. We must have far greater transparency about which companies 
holding Federal communication licenses and authorizations also have 
influential ties to foreign adversarial governments, and we must look 
deeper at who has this access and how many more companies like Huawei 
are out there.
  Companies like Huawei must be stopped. We can no longer permit 
authoritarian regimes like China to infiltrate our networks and lurk in 
the shadows, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. It is not 
enough to brace ourselves for the aftermath of disaster. We must root 
out the threat before it has time to fester.
  The reality is this: Our foreign adversaries have stakes in numerous 
companies operating freely and legally within the United States. Yet, 
in many cases, the public remains unaware which companies are owned, 
wholly or partially, by these adversaries.
  That is why, today, I call upon the Senate to pass my FACT Act, which 
takes a much needed step to strengthen our visibility into our 
telecommunications market to weed out that access that we have seen 
from these malicious adversaries because the first step--the first 
step--in defending our national security is understanding the threat.
  My bill directs the Federal Communications Commission to publicly 
identify these companies, the ones that have that FCC license or 
authorization, that are owned by foreign adversarial governments. Under 
the FACT Act, companies with foreign ties will no longer be able to 
operate in secrecy, and they will no longer be able to conceal their 
financial backers or obscure their true loyalties.
  Huawei should serve as a warning. China is on the offensive to 
undermine the security of America's communications. An attack on our 
networks is a direct attack on the United States, and it is not one 
that we should tolerate.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nebraska.

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