Senate Passes Conference FY 2019 NDAA With Anti-Huawei/ZTE, CFIUS Revamp Language

The Senate voted 87-10 Wednesday to pass the conference version of the FY 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-5515), with language to bar U.S. agencies from using “risky” technology produced by ZTE or fellow Chinese telecom equipment firm Huawei. The House approved the conference HR-5515 last week (see 1807260049). Conferees agreed to attach the Huawei/ZTE language originally included in the House-passed HR-5515 instead of a harder-line anti-ZTE provision in the Senate-passed version (see 1807200053). Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said he was one of the 10 senators who voted against the conference HR-5515 because it didn't include stronger anti-ZTE language. "The threat posed by China and its telecommunications as such are so severe and significant that it regrettably brings me to the point where I cannot support a bill I have always supported" since joining the Senate in 2011, Rubio said on the Senate floor. "We need to wake up to the threat that China poses to this country because we are running out of time to do so." Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., tweeted he also voted against HR-5515 because it "caved to the White House to let ZTE off the hook." The conference HR-5515 also includes a modified version of the language from the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act that originally appeared in the Senate-passed NDAA (see 1807190064). That HR-4311/S-2098 language would expand the scope of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to probe more investments, including in "critical" technology or infrastructure companies (see 1804260029).