House Lawmakers Eye DOD Spectrum, TikTok Ban Amendments

Lawmakers are proposing a range of telecom and tech-focused amendments to the House Armed Services Committee’s FY 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-7900). They include proposals to require more DOD transparency on its implementation of its 2020 spectrum sharing strategy, bar TikTok use on government devices, and several focusing on the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The House Rules Committee Thursday afternoon hadn't set a meeting to consider the amendments.

House Transportation Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Rick Larsen, D-Wash.; House Armed Services Cybersecurity Subcommittee Chairman Jim Langevin, D-R.I.; and Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., want to require DOD to provide an “unclassified version” of its spectrum strategy implementation plan “in all future updates to the plan and “strengthen governance reforms to ensure necessary senior operational leadership.” The strategy is aimed at aligning department-wide spectrum activities “to solve persistent gaps” in the U.S.’ ability “to project, achieve, and sustain” spectrum “superiority against adversaries and peer competitors,” including China and Russia, the amendment said. DOD’s strategy proposes the Pentagon use “dynamic and bidirectional sharing for facilitating access to commercial spectrum” (see 2010290061).

House Commerce Committee members Reps. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., and Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., propose attaching language from the Promoting U.S. Wireless Leadership Act (HR-3003), which would direct NTIA to encourage U.S. companies and others to participate in international standards-setting bodies. The House included HR-3003’s language in its version of the FY 2022 NDAA but jettisoned it from the compromise package enacted in December (see 2112080070).

Reps. Michael Guest, R-Miss., and Sam Graves, R-Mo., filed an amendment to remove barriers preventing rural communities from using Commerce Department Economic Development Authority grants to pay for broadband projects. Commerce would evaluate broadband applicants for EDA grants based partly on “geographic diversity of grants allocated, including consideration of underserved markets.” The department would also review “the level and extent of broadband service that will be deployed in the area proposed to be served pursuant to another Federal program.”

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, is seeking a DOD study “on the risks posed by” manmade low-earth orbit space debris, including recommendations on how to mitigate those risks. Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., proposes requiring DOD to “develop a certification process for allied nation launch systems, to be used as a backup” for U.S. payloads “in the event of emergency responsive space needs.” Florida's Reps. Maria Salazar (R), Stephanie Murphy (D) and Michael Waltz (R) propose requiring the Air Force to identify opportunities to deploy stratospheric balloons, aerostats or satellite technology capable of rapidly delivering wireless internet anywhere on the planet from high altitudes.

TikTok, Cybersecurity

House Antitrust Subcommittee ranking member Ken Buck, R-Colo., proposes “requiring the removal” of TikTok from government devices, with exceptions for “law enforcement activities, national security interests and activities, and security researchers.” Buck previously sought the TikTok ban in the FY 2021 and FY22 NDAA cycles (see 2007210060). TikTok and parent company ByteDance face renewed congressional scrutiny over China-based employees’ access to U.S. users’ data, including a call from Senate Intelligence Committee leaders for an FTC probe (see 2207060003).

Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., is leading a bid to attach his CISA Leadership Act (HR-5186), which would set the agency director’s term at five years and give the Senate power to confirm future nominees. The proposal follows former President Donald Trump's November 2020 decision to fire then-CISA Director Chris Krebs for not backing debunked claims of fraud in that year's presidential election (see 2011180064). Langevin is seeking to create an Office of Cybersecurity Statistics within the agency to collect, process, analyze and disseminate statistics on cybersecurity and cyber incidents to public and government stakeholders. Garbarino and Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., propose requiring CISA to maintain a publicly available clearinghouse of resources on the cybersecurity of commercial satellite system.

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., wants CISA to investigate the 2020 SolarWinds cyberattack and make recommendations to Congress on preventing similar cyber incidents. Reps. August Pfluger, R-Texas, and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, propose a process for identifying and imposing sanctions against foreign governments and non-state actors responsible for state-sponsored cyberattacks against the U.S. Langevin wants the federal government to designate certain critical infrastructure entities as “systemically important” to the continuity of national critical functions and establish unique benefits and requirements for such entities. The amendment would set up an interagency council for critical infrastructure cybersecurity coordination to facilitate harmonization of future cybersecurity policy and requirements developed by federal agencies.

Reps. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, and Kai Kahele, D-Hawaii, seek to create the National Digital Reserves Corps to allow private sector cybersecurity, AI and digital experts to temporarily work for the federal government. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., filed an amendment to require DOD to coordinate with the State Department on a report on State-designated foreign terrorist groups’ use of social media and the threat posed by online radicalization. Malinowski and Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., want to require State and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on foreign government-funded “inauthentic” social media accounts to “harass” and intimidate U.S. citizens.

Media, Privacy

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., proposes barring NDAA funding for the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s Open Technology Fund. House Homeland Security Emergency Preparedness Subcommittee Chairwoman Val Demings, D-Fla., and Rep. Bill Keating, D-Mass., want to allocate $5 million to OTF annually through FY 2027 to make grants aimed at maintaining support for internet freedom technologies to counter censorship in closed countries. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, proposes requiring State to report on “what is needed to provide access to free and uncensored media in the Chinese market.” Malinowski and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., seek a Treasury Department report on the Iranian government’s use of digital surveillance and censorship of the internet and an assessment of whether alterations to existing general licenses are needed to support Iranians’ access to the internet.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., proposes strengthening the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board’s ability to provide meaningful oversight of AI for counterterrorism purposes. Reps. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., and Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, want a DOD report that details the department’s purchase and use of location data “generated by phones that are likely to be located in” the U.S. and “their internet metadata.” Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., wants to make it illegal to distribute “intimate” images of a person “with knowledge of or reckless disregard for the lack of consent of the individual to the distribution.”

Malinowski and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., filed an amendment to bar federal agencies from encouraging the weakening of encryption or insertion of backdoors on commercially-available phones, computers, and devices. The House passed similar language in its version of the FY22 NDAA. Eshoo and Gwen Moore, D-Wis., propose creating a $3 billion Commerce grant program to incentivize U.S. manufacturing of printed circuit boards. Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., wants a DOD report on the threat of drones and other unmanned aircraft to U.S. national security.

Reps. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., and David Cicilline, D-R.I., filed an amendment directing State to negotiate a multilateral agreement with the Group of Seven and other allies to establish an independent international center for research on the information environment that would in part measure the impacts of the content moderation, product design decisions and algorithms of online platforms on society. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., wants to require the Housing and Urban Development Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to issue a report on the role of online platforms and tenant screening companies in the housing market. Waters proposes the agencies assess how AI and other emerging technologies are being used in compliance with U.S. fair lending and housing laws.