Undersea Cable Control Act

Key Points

• The bill requires the President, through the Commerce and State Departments, to create a strategy to stop foreign adversaries from getting equipment and technology needed to build, maintain, or operate undersea cables, which carry most of the world's internet and phone traffic.
• The Commerce Department must evaluate specific cable-related items for export controls, including deciding whether to add them to the restricted Commerce Control List, which would require special licenses to sell to certain countries.
• The U.S. will try to reach agreements with allied countries within a year to adopt matching export rules, including penalties for countries that don't comply, so adversaries can't simply buy restricted equipment from a different partner nation.
• The government must track and report to Congress each year for three years on foreign adversary activity at international standards-setting bodies for cable technology, and on companies controlled by foreign adversaries that support cable construction or operation.