National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Chairman, I thank Chairman Thornberry for yielding me time.

Mr. Chairman, protecting U.S. Government communication networks from foreign adversaries such as China is vital to our national security. I share the concerns of FBI Director Wray, who testified before the Senate. He was deeply concerned about the risk of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don't share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks.

Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to see that section 880 of the NDAA of FY19 addresses this concern by prohibiting Federal departments and agencies from procuring equipment and services from foreign firms such as ZTE and Huawei. Specifically, ZTE violated U.S. sanctions and then got caught lying about it. After agreeing to discipline their employees, they lied again and, instead, gave those employees a bonus.

Now it appears that we are offering them the same kind of deal. They clearly do not have a record built on trust with the United States Government. This poses significant risks to our Nation's security.

However, this prohibition does not apply to State and local governments, who often rely on Federal grant dollars and play a major role in the protection of our Nations' security, and that is why I have offered this amendment.

My amendment simply extends the prohibition on purchasing ZTE and Huawei products and services to Federal grant money and loans to better safeguard State and local communications networks.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to protect our Nation's communications networks from foreign adversaries and support this amendment.

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