Rubio Demands Answers After U.S. Federal Agencies Purchase Blacklisted Chinese Technology

Press Release

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) sent a letter to Robin Carnahan, Administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), after reports that the Drug Enforcement Agency, the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Finance and Accounting Service, and the Department of the Army purchased products by Lorex, a subsidiary of China-based Dahua Technology, via a GSA portal. As Rubio pointed out, federal agencies are prohibited under U.S. law from purchasing Dahua technology due to its ties to the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) ongoing human rights abuses, including genocide and slave labor.

"That federal agencies purchased Dahua [commercial-off-the-shelf] products on GSA Advantage through May 2021 exposes a critical gap in U.S. national security, affording the CCP a potential pathway into the daily activities of U.S. federal agencies who utilize this technology, including sensitive military information," Rubio wrote.

Given this, Rubio urged the GSA to "take immediate action to ensure that COTS products sold by blacklisted Chinese companies are blocked from GSA Advantage's portal."

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