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Removing Our Unsecure Technologies to Ensure Reliability and Security Act

Floor Speech

By: Bob Latta
By: Bob Latta
Date: April 28, 2025
Location: Washington, DC

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Mr. LATTA. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend, the chair of the subcommittee, for yielding.

I rise today in support of my legislation, H.R. 866, the ROUTERS Act.

Routers and modems play a key role in communications networks. They are the entry point through which the public accesses the internet. Thus, we make sure that they are secure.

Bad actors can exploit vulnerabilities in routers to infect users' computers, access their information, or disrupt their network.

National security agencies, including the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Homeland Security, have reported on the threat posed by vulnerabilities in routers and how some Chinese Communist Party-sponsored hackers have used these vulnerabilities to launch attacks. We should take these reports seriously.

Further, we know that companies with ties to the CCP could be forced to support Chinese intelligence activities. We can imagine how they could use vulnerabilities in their equipment to aid these efforts.

That is why I am pleased to sponsor the ROUTERS Act, which would direct the Secretary of Commerce through the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information to study the national security risk posed by routers and modems produced by companies with ties to foreign adversaries. This study will help Congress understand the scope and risk of this threat and will inform whether we need to remove this equipment from our networks.

The legislation builds on our bipartisan efforts to remove untrusted equipment from our communications ecosystem. In the past 5 years, we passed the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act to remove Huawei and ZTE equipment from our networks and the Secure Equipment Act, which prohibits the Federal Communications Commission from authorizing equipment from untrusted vendors.

It is imperative we move forward with these efforts to mitigate the widespread availability of this equipment.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 866, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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