Cicilline, Menendez Resist Trump Administration on ZTE Ban

House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee ranking member David Cicilline, D-R.I., confirmed Sunday that more than 60 fellow House members signed his letter to the Office of Government Ethics seeking an investigation into President Donald Trump's push to reconsider recently applied Department of Commerce sanctions against ZTE. Commerce announced in April a seven-year ban on U.S. companies selling telecom software and equipment to the Chinese telecom gearmaker (see 1804170018). Cicilline began circulating the letter last week, while members of both parties were pushing for legislation aimed at limiting Trump's ability to weaken the ban (see 1805220057, 1805230058, 1805240064 and 1805250059). Trump didn’t explicitly confirm his administration reached a deal with the China on ZTE. in a Friday tweet. but said he would let the company “reopen with high level security guarantees, change of management and board, [and] must purchase U.S. parts and pay a $1.3 Billion fine.” Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Bob Menendez, D-N.J., sent a letter Friday to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross urging him to make decisions on enforcing the ban “independent of political pressure from the White House over unrelated trade or business matters, which threatens to undermine our national security and commitment to the rule of law.”