TikTok Ban, Cyber NDAA Amendments Up for House Floor Consideration

The House began considering its FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-6395) Monday, with anti-Ligado language intact. The House Rules Committee didn’t allow floor consideration of three proposed amendments trying to advance and stop efforts to hinder Ligado’s L-band plan, despite support from committee member Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas (see 2007170059). The panel ultimately agreed to allow votes on several other tech and telecom amendments, including ones aimed at Chinese companies ByteDance and ZTE (see 2007150062).

Burgess’ office and others didn’t comment on why House Rules decided against his pair of amendments, which were aimed at undoing HR-6395’s existing Ligado language (see 2007010070). The other amendment, from House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee ranking member Mike Turner, R-Ohio, proposed to say the FCC's Ligado approval has “no force or effect” until after the commission and NTIA certify results of a proposed test of harmful interference of the L-band operations on GPS.

Three top House Commerce Committee Republicans support a proposed amendment to ban federal employees from using the TikTok app or successor apps developed by parent company ByteDance on government-issued devices. Committee ranking member Greg Walden of Oregon “has not spoken on this amendment, but he has raised concerns about TikTok generally and is supportive of the amendment,” a spokesperson said. He and other House Commerce Republicans questioned TikTok’s data practices in May (see 2005210018).

“There is a great amount of uncertainty concerning how China is utilizing” TikTok “to undermine our national security and illegally obtain the data of its users,” said House Communications ranking member Bob Latta, R-Ohio, in a statement to us. “Until it can be confirmed that TikTok is not exploiting user information, it is extremely important that this app or others by ByteDance are not downloaded onto any federal government devices.” Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., also backs the proposal, a spokesperson said.

TikTok is “fully committed to protecting our users' privacy and security,” a spokesperson emailed. “TikTok has an American CEO, a Chief Information Security Officer with decades of US military and law enforcement experience, and a growing US team that works diligently to develop a best-in-class security infrastructure.” U.S. users’ data “is stored in Virginia and Singapore, with strict controls on employee access,” the spokesperson said. “These are the facts.”

House Rules didn’t allow many other telecom-related amendments to reach the floor but advanced one from Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., that would again direct GAO to report to Congress on ZTE compliance with a 2018 agreement that lifted Commerce's ban on U.S. companies selling to ZTE (see 1807130048). Similar language was included in the FY 2020 NDAA (see 1912170059). The committee didn’t advance two other amendments against ZTE and Chinese equipment maker Huawei from Reps. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., and Ann Wagner, R-Mo.

Other amendments advanced to the House floor include one from Communications Vice Chair Doris Matsui, D-Calif., to attach modified text from the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (Chips) for America Act. HR-7178/S-3933 would allocate funding to match state and local incentives and direct the Commerce Department to establish a grant program. The Senate is to vote this week on an amendment to S-4049 to attach the text of S-3933 (see 2007020053).

More than a dozen cybersecurity amendments are up for full House consideration, with several seeking to implement recommendations from the Cyberspace Solarium Commission’s March report (see 2003110076). They include a proposal by House Armed Services Emerging Threats Subcommittee Chairman Jim Langevin, D-R.I., to attach language from the National Cyber Director Act (HR-7331) to establish a national cyber director within the executive office of the president. Another from Langevin would allow the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to issue administrative subpoenas to ISPs to identify and warn entities of cyber vulnerabilities.

House Rules advanced some artificial intelligence proposals. One from House Commerce Vice Chair Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., expands and clarifies the mandate of entities authorized by the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act to include combating discriminatory algorithmic bias against protected classes of persons. Another Clarke amendment would bar DOD from using NDAA funding to buy artificial intelligence technology that hasn’t been vetted for discriminatory algorithmic bias. Rep. Kendra Horn, D-Okla., seeks to authorize funding to establish a federal initiative to accelerate and coordinate federal investments and facilitate new public-private partnerships in AI research, standards and education.

Three advanced amendments seek reports on deepfakes, including from DOD, DHS’ Science and Technology Directorate and a proposed Steering Committee Emerging Technology working group. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., wants a State Department report on social media use by foreign terrorist groups “for recruitment, fundraising, and the dissemination of information” and online radicalization of terrorists. An amendment led by Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, would attach language from the Open Technology Fund Authorization Act. HR-6621/S-3820 would establish the Open Technology Fund as an independent grantee of the U.S. Agency for Global Media charged with “countering internet censorship and repressive surveillance and protecting the internet as a platform for the free exchange of ideas." The bill’s language is also included in a manager’s amendment to S-4049.