I 
119TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 7208 
To direct the Secretary of Commerce to submit a report assessing 
vulnerabilities to the electric grid in the United States from certain 
Internet-connected devices and applications, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 22, 2026 
Mr. CRENSHAW introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on 
Foreign Affairs, Oversight and Government Reform, Ways and Means, 
Intelligence (Permanent Select), and Homeland Security, for a period to 
be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider-
ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 
concerned 
A BILL 
To direct the Secretary of Commerce to submit a report 
assessing vulnerabilities to the electric grid in the United 
States from certain Internet-connected devices and appli-
cations, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Preventing Remote 
Operations by Threatening Entities on Critical Tech-
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nology for the Grid Act’’ or the ‘‘PROTECT the Grid 
Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; PURPOSES. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that— 
(1) the rapid proliferation of high-wattage IoT 
devices, such as electric vehicle chargers, clothes dry-
ers, smart air conditioners, water heaters, ovens, 
and similar appliances, has dramatically increased 
the number of connected devices in households in the 
United States; 
(2)(A) smart appliance applications and soft-
ware platforms increasingly serve as remote control 
interfaces; and 
(B) when those applications and software plat-
forms originate from companies operating under the 
jurisdiction or direction of foreign adversaries they 
offer a pathway for large-scale, coordinated manipu-
lation of power demand, threatening grid stability; 
(3)(A) in certain foreign adversary jurisdictions, 
particularly the People’s Republic of China, private 
companies are subject to formal political oversight 
through mechanisms such as, in the case of the Peo-
ple’s Republic of China, embedded Chinese Com-
munist Party committees and executive-level Chinese 
Communist Party leadership; and 
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(B) those arrangements blur the lines between 
commercial activity and state-directed strategic in-
terests; 
(4) further elevating the risk to the United 
States electric grid is the 2017 Cybersecurity Law of 
the People’s Republic of China (commonly referred 
to as the ‘‘Chinese Cybersecurity Law’’), which man-
dates that Chinese companies store customer data 
domestically and grant Chinese state authorities 
broad access to those data; 
(5) the legal and political structures described 
in paragraphs (3) and (4) increase the likelihood 
that connected home appliances could be leveraged 
by foreign adversaries to target critical infrastruc-
ture in the event of a conflict with the United 
States; 
(6) companies controlled by foreign adver-
saries— 
(A) are actively pursuing rapid deployment 
of high-wattage IoT devices that could be used 
to attack the electric grid in the United States; 
and 
(B) control more than 25 percent of the 
major appliance industry in the United States, 
which provides an established platform for 
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quickly deploying those high-wattage IoT de-
vices; 
(7) through smart applications, companies con-
trolled by foreign adversaries— 
(A) are actively collecting detailed con-
sumer data on millions of people in the United 
States; and 
(B) have the ability to directly manipulate 
the demand of high-wattage devices on the elec-
tric grid; 
(8) as a result, foreign adversary-controlled ap-
plications for high-wattage IoT devices create signifi-
cant risk of coordinated, deliberate, demand-manipu-
lation attacks on the electric grid in the United 
States; 
(9) several academic studies from researchers 
at Princeton University, the Georgia Institute of 
Technology, and the University of California, Santa 
Cruz, point to significant risks of manipulation of 
demand 
via 
IoT 
(commonly 
referred 
to 
as 
‘‘MaDIoT’’) attacks to manipulate power demand on 
the electric grid that could result in large-scale 
blackouts and potential damage to the electric grid; 
(10) it is therefore critical to protect energy in-
frastructure in the United States by ensuring that 
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smart applications embedded in home appliances are 
secure and cannot serve as an entry point for foreign 
adversaries; and 
(11) failing to address the vulnerabilities pre-
sented by those smart applications could lead to grid 
instability, frequency imbalances, cascading system 
failures, and, ultimately, catastrophic disruptions 
that jeopardize both public safety and the broader 
economy of the United States. 
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are— 
(1) to harmonize and reinforce existing national 
security initiatives aimed at securing the domestic 
information and communications technology and 
services (commonly referred to as ‘‘ICTS’’) supply 
chain against manipulation of demand, especially by 
the People’s Republic of China; and 
(2) to direct the Secretary of Commerce, in con-
sultation with other relevant Federal officials, to 
submit to Congress a report containing findings and 
recommendations to ensure that network-connected 
home appliances in households in the United States 
do not serve as a conduit for activities by foreign ad-
versaries or jeopardize the stability of the electric 
grid in the United States. 
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