The “Foreign Adversary Communications Transparency Act” (FACT Act), introduced by Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY), would require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to publish a list of every entity that both holds an FCC license or authorization and has sufficient ties back into authoritarian regimes.

According to Congresswoman Stefanik, this legislation is intended to “provide critical telecommunications transparency” by requiring the FCC to publish a list of companies who hold FCC authorizations, licenses, or other grants of authority with over 10% or more ownership by foreign adversarial governments, including China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr expressed his support for the legislation with the following statement:

“I applaud Congresswoman Stefanik’s strong leadership and thoughtful work to counter the malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party and other authoritarian state actors. Her FACT Act would strengthen American’s national security. And I encourage Congress to move quickly in passing this common sense legislation.”

“It is vital that we provide a full and transparent accounting of every entity with ties back into the CCP— and the governments of other authoritarian regimes—that are operating inside America’s tech and telecom markets, yet there has never been a public disclosure when it comes to those networks of relationships. This only makes it more difficult for the public and private sector alike to assess the likelihood that those connections can be leveraged to harm America’s national security interests. We know that the CCP is engaged in a widespread and coordinated campaign to surveil Americans, and they are willing to use every tool at their disposal to advance their malign goals—indeed, one of the means by which the CCP does this is by developing and exploiting relationships within tech and telecom interests. Publishing a list of all entities with FCC authorizations that have covered relationships with authoritarian regimes would aid the FCC in carrying out its mission of advancing America’s national security interest. So I am grateful for Congresswoman Stefanik efforts to increase transparency in this area.”

ArentFox Schiff’s National Security Team will continue to monitor these issues as well as other actions of the FCC impacting National Security issues.

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