Foreign Adversary Communications Transparency Act

Key Points

• The bill requires the FCC to publish a public list of companies holding U.S. communications licenses that have ownership or control ties to foreign adversary nations like China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.
• The initial list covers companies with wireless spectrum licenses and undersea cable landing licenses where a covered entity holds a reportable equity or voting stake, or where a national security agency has found the covered entity exerts control.
• The FCC must publish this first list within 120 days of the law taking effect.
• Within 18 months, the FCC must write new rules to find other types of license and authorization holders with foreign adversary ties, and add them to the list within a year after that.
• The list must be updated at least once a year to keep the public record current as ownership changes.
• The bill exempts this data collection from the Paperwork Reduction Act, removing a normal procedural check on how the FCC gathers this ownership information.

Impact Analysis

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