House Passes Anti-Huawei, ZTE Amendments to FY 2020 NDAA

The House passed on voice votes Thursday four telecom-related amendments to its version of the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-2500), including three addressing concerns about Chinese telecom equipment manufacturers Huawei and ZTE (see 1907020060). The Senate passed its 2020 NDAA version (S-1790) in June without language from any of the three proposed anti-Huawei amendments (see 1906270051). The House also approved an amendment led by Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., that would attach language from the 911 Supporting Accurate Views of Emergency Services (Saves) Act (HR-1629/S-1015). It would change the federal government's classification of public safety call-takers and dispatchers to “protective service occupations" rather than administrative or clerical occupations (see 1904050054). AT&T “enthusiastically supports” the HR-1629 language, Executive Vice President-Federal Relations Tim McKone said. House Rules Committee cleared the Torres and anti-Huawei/ZTE amendments Tuesday. One, led by Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., would impose conditions for the Department of Commerce to lift Bureau of Industry and Security addition of Huawei to its entity list that would impose export restrictions on the company, including a finding that Huawei and its executives haven't violated U.S. or UN sanctions and haven't engaged in theft of U.S. intellectual property during the preceding five years (see 1906190054). Undersecretary-Industry and Security Nazak Nikakhtar said Tuesday the department is reviewing export license applications to sell to Huawei to “mitigate as much of the negative impacts of the entity listing as possible” and hopes to have decisions “soon” (see 1907100013). A second Gallagher-led proposal would direct the president to submit a report to Congress on ZTE's compliance with a 2018 agreement that lifted Commerce's ban on U.S. companies selling telecom software and equipment to ZTE (see 1807130048). Language from Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., would restrict the use of telecom equipment made by companies originating in countries that are U.S. adversaries at Department of Defense installations in U.S. territories in the Pacific Ocean. Commerce plans multiple guidances on its blacklisting of Huawei due to the large number of questions from U.S. exporters, officials told a BIS conference Thursday, to address the most common questions from U.S. industries. “We've gotten a lot of questions and we’ve been funneling them up the chain for clearance,” said Hillary Hess, director of Commerce’s regulatory policy division. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., meanwhile, criticized Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Thursday after a report Mnuchin is encouraging Huawei's U.S. suppliers to seek licenses that would resume their sales to the company. “I strongly 'discourage' any American company from seeking licenses to deal with Huawei,” Cotton tweeted. The company “is a threat to Americans’ security, privacy, & prosperity. Don’t be the proverbial capitalist who sells the rope the communists will hang us with.”