I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1149 

To establish certain reporting and other requirements relating to telecommunications equipment and services produced or provided by certain entities, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 21, 2023 

Ms. WILD (for herself and Mrs. RADEWAGEN) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition 

to the Committee on Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently 

determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

A BILL 

To establish certain reporting and other requirements relating to telecommunications equipment and services produced or provided by certain entities, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Countering Untrusted 

5 Telecommunications Abroad Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

7 It is the sense of Congress that— 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
2 

•HR 1149 IH

1 (1) the national security of the United States is 

2 affected by the telecommunications security of 

3 United States allies, partners, and other countries 

4 around the globe; 

5 (2) the importance of mobile and internet serv6 ices makes such services tempting and effective tools 

7 for malign influence and economic coercion; 

8 (3) Huawei Technologies Company and ZTE 

9 Corporation (and any subsidiary or affiliate of either 

10 such entity) should not serve as a vendor of tele11 communications equipment or services given the 

12 close ties to, and control over, such entities by the 

13 People’s Republic of China; and 

14 (4) it is in the economic and national security 

15 interests of the United States to ensure that coun16 tries around the globe use trusted telecommuni17 cations equipment or services. 

18 SEC. 3. REPORT ON UNTRUSTED TELECOMMUNICATIONS 

19 EQUIPMENT OR SERVICES IN COUNTRIES 

20 WITH COLLECTIVE DEFENSE AGREEMENT 

21 WITH UNITED STATES. 

22 (a) REPORT.—Not later than 180 days after the date 

23 of the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter for 

24 two years, the Secretary of State, in consultation with the 

25 Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
3 

•HR 1149 IH

1 Information, shall submit to the Committees on Foreign 

2 Affairs and Energy and Commerce of the House of Rep3 resentatives and the Committees on Foreign Relations and 

4 Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate a 

5 report on the prevalence of untrusted telecommunications 

6 equipment or services in the networks of United States 

7 allies and partners. 

8 (b) MATTERS.—The report under subsection (a) shall 

9 enumerate each United States ally or partner with respect 

10 to which the United States has entered into a collective 

11 defense agreement and include, for each such country, the 

12 following: 

13 (1) A description of the presence, or lack there14 of, of untrusted telecommunications equipment or 

15 services in any 5G network of the country. 

16 (2) If any untrusted telecommunications equip17 ment or service is present in such a network— 

18 (A) an enumeration of any mobile carriers 

19 that are using the untrusted telecommuni20 cations equipment or service present, and any 

21 mobile carriers that are not; 

22 (B) a determination of whether the 

23 untrusted telecommunications equipment or 

24 service present is in the core or periphery of the 

25 network; and 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
4 

•HR 1149 IH

1 (C) any plans by the United States ally or 

2 partner, or the individual mobile carrier, to rip 

3 and replace the untrusted telecommunications 

4 equipment or service present with a trusted 

5 telecommunications equipment or service. 

6 (3) A description of any plans by network oper7 ators to use untrusted communications equipment or 

8 services in the deployment of Open Radio Access 

9 Network (Open RAN) technology, or any successor 

10 to such technology, or in future 6G networks. 

11 SEC. 4. REPORT ON COVERED TELECOMMUNICATIONS 

12 EQUIPMENT OR SERVICES IN UNITED STATES 

13 EMBASSIES. 

14 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 

15 (1) The Comptroller General of the United 

16 States has reported that 23 percent of all tele17 communications device manufacturers of the Depart18 ment of State have at least one supplier reported to 

19 be headquartered in the People’s Republic of China 

20 or the Russian Federation. 

21 (2) The Comptroller General has reported that 

22 four percent of all telecommunications contractors of 

23 the Department of State have at least one supplier 

24 reported to be headquartered in the People’s Repub25 lic of China. 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
5 

•HR 1149 IH

1 (b) REPORT.— 

2 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 

3 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec4 retary of State, in consultation with the heads of 

5 such other departments and agencies as the Sec6 retary determines necessary, shall submit to the 

7 Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Rep8 resentatives and the Committee on Foreign Rela9 tions of the Senate a report containing an assess10 ment of the use of covered telecommunications 

11 equipment or services in United States embassies 

12 and by United States embassy staff and personnel. 

13 (2) MATTERS.—The report under paragraph 

14 (1) shall include information on the following: 

15 (A) The status of the implementation by 

16 the Secretary of State of the prohibition under 

17 subsection (a)(1) of section 889 of the John S. 

18 McCain National Defense Authorization Act for 

19 Fiscal Year 2019 (Public Law 115–232; 132 

20 Stat. 1917; 41 U.S.C. 3901 note prec.) with re21 spect to equipment, systems, and services used 

22 at United States embassies, including— 

23 (i) an identification of the United 

24 States embassies with respect to which the 

25 Secretary has implemented such prohibiVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:35 Mar 11, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1149.IH H1149

kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
6 

•HR 1149 IH

1 tion, and an identification of those with re2 spect to which the Secretary has not imple3 mented such prohibition, if any; 

4 (ii) an identification of any difficulties 

5 that have delayed the implementation of 

6 such prohibition by the Secretary with re7 spect to United States embassies, such as 

8 visibility into supply chains, costs of equip9 ment replacement, and plans for timely re10 mediation; 

11 (iii) information on any waivers that 

12 have been granted to an entity under sub13 section (d) of such section 889 for equip14 ment, systems, or services used at United 

15 States embassies, including a justification 

16 of why each waiver was granted and any 

17 other information required pursuant to 

18 paragraph (1)(B) of such subsection; and 

19 (iv) for any entity that has sought a 

20 waiver specified in clause (iii), the imple21 mentation status of the phase-out plan of 

22 the entity submitted by the entity pursuant 

23 to subsection (d) of such section 889. 

24 (B) Information regarding the extent to 

25 which the digital devices of United States emVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:35 Mar 11, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1149.IH H1149

kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
7 

•HR 1149 IH

1 bassy staff and personnel are serviced by 

2 Huawei Technologies Company or ZTE Cor3 poration (or any subsidiary or affiliate of either 

4 such entity), or any other entity headquartered 

5 in the People’s Republic of China, and an as6 sessment of the likelihood of the intelligence 

7 services of the People’s Republic of China gain8 ing access to the contents and data of the dig9 ital devices used by United States embassy per10 sonnel as a result of any such servicing. 

11 (C) Any other information regarding ongo12 ing efforts to safeguard the communications se13 curity of United States embassies. 

14 (3) FORM.—The report under paragraph (1) 

15 shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may in16 clude a classified annex. 

17 SEC. 5. SUPPORTING TRUSTED TELECOMMUNICATIONS. 

18 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of State, in con19 sultation with the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for 

20 Communications and Information, shall select for the pro21 vision of support under this section telecommunications in22 frastructure projects that have the potential, as deter23 mined by the Secretary, to promote the national security 

24 of the United States and meet such other requirements 

25 as the Secretary may prescribe. 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
8 

•HR 1149 IH

1 (b) DIPLOMATIC AND POLITICAL SUPPORT.—The 

2 Secretary of State shall provide to each project selected 

3 under subsection (a), as appropriate, diplomatic and polit4 ical support, including by using the diplomatic and polit5 ical influence and expertise of the Department of State 

6 to build the capacity of countries to resolve any impedi7 ments to the development of the project. 

8 (c) EARLY STAGE PROJECT SUPPORT.—The Director 

9 of the United States Trade and Development Agency 

10 should provide, as appropriate, early-stage project support 

11 with respect to projects selected under subsection (a). 

12 SEC. 6. DISCLOSURE AND TRANSPARENCY OF UNTRUSTED 

13 COMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT. 

14 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 13 of the Securities Ex15 change Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78m) is amended by add16 ing at the end the following new subsection: 

17 ‘‘(s) DISCLOSURE OF CERTAIN ACTIVITIES RELATED

18 TO UNTRUSTED TELECOMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT.— 

19 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Each issuer required to file 

20 an annual or quarterly report under subsection (a) 

21 shall disclose in that report the information required 

22 in paragraph (2) if, during the period covered by the 

23 report, the issuer or any affiliate of the issuer used 

24 or contracted to use covered telecommunications 

25 equipment or services. 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
9 

•HR 1149 IH

1 ‘‘(2) INFORMATION REQUIRED.—If an issuer or 

2 affiliate of the issuer has engaged in an activity de3 scribed in paragraph (1), the issuer shall disclose 

4 such activity, including a detailed description of— 

5 ‘‘(A) whether the covered telecommuni6 cations equipment or services are being used in 

7 a mobile network run by the issuer, and wheth8 er those equipment or services were used in the 

9 core or periphery of the network; 

10 ‘‘(B) whether the covered telecommuni11 cations equipment or services were used for 

12 cloud computing or data storage; 

13 ‘‘(C) whether any covered telecommuni14 cations equipment or services were replaced 

15 with other vendors; and 

16 ‘‘(D) whether the issuer is currently engag17 ing in negotiations or planning to contract to 

18 use additional covered telecommunications 

19 equipment or services. 

20 ‘‘(3) NOTICE OF DISCLOSURES.—If an issuer 

21 reports under paragraph (1) that the issuer or an 

22 affiliate of the issuer has knowingly engaged in any 

23 activity described in that paragraph, the issuer shall 

24 separately file with the Commission, concurrently 

25 with the annual or quarterly report under subsection 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
10 

•HR 1149 IH

1 (a), a notice that the disclosure of that activity has 

2 been included in that annual or quarterly report that 

3 identifies the issuer and contains the information re4 quired by paragraph (2). 

5 ‘‘(4) PUBLIC DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION.— 

6 Upon receiving a notice under paragraph (3) that an 

7 annual or quarterly report includes a disclosure of 

8 an activity described in paragraph (1), the Commis9 sion shall promptly— 

10 ‘‘(A) transmit the report to— 

11 ‘‘(i) the President; 

12 ‘‘(ii) the Committees on Foreign Af13 fairs, Energy and Commerce, and Finan14 cial Services of the House of Representa15 tives; and 

16 ‘‘(iii) the Committees on Foreign Re17 lations, Commerce, Science, and Transpor18 tation, and Banking, Housing, and Urban 

19 Affairs of the Senate; and 

20 ‘‘(B) make the information provided in the 

21 disclosure and the notice available to the public 

22 by posting the information on the Internet 

23 website of the Commission. 

24 ‘‘(5) COVERED TELECOMMUNICATIONS EQUIP25 MENT OR SERVICE DEFINED.—In this subsection, 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
11 

•HR 1149 IH

1 the term ‘covered telecommunications equipment or 

2 service’ has the meaning given to the term ‘covered 

3 communications equipment or service’ in section 9 of 

4 the Secure and Trusted Communications Network 

5 Act of 2019 (47 U.S.C. 1608).’’. 

6 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 

7 subsection (a) shall take effect with respect to reports re8 quired to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Com9 mission after the date that is 180 days after the date of 

10 the enactment of this Act. 

11 SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS. 

12 In this Act: 

13 (1) COVERED TELECOMMUNICATIONS EQUIP14 MENT OR SERVICE; UNTRUSTED TELECOMMUNI15 CATIONS EQUIPMENT OR SERVICE.—The terms ‘‘cov16 ered telecommunications equipment or service’’ and 

17 ‘‘untrusted telecommunications equipment or serv18 ice’’ have the meaning given to the term ‘‘covered 

19 communications equipment or service’’ in section 9 

20 of the Secure and Trusted Communications Network 

21 Act of 2019 (47 U.S.C. 1608). 

22 (2) TRUSTED TELECOMMUNICATIONS EQUIP23 MENT OR SERVICE.—The term ‘‘trusted tele24 communications equipment or service’’ means any 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
12 

•HR 1149 IH

1 telecommunications equipment or service that is not 

2 a covered telecommunications equipment or service. 

Æ 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS