Sponsors (4)
The bill increases transparency about foreign ties in the broadband and communications sector to reduce national-security risks and improve procurement decisions, but it may raise costs, harm some companies' reputations, and weaken paperwork/privacy oversight with downstream effects on prices and competition for consumers.
Taxpayers and consumers gain clearer information about foreign ties of telecom providers, reducing national-security risk from foreign-controlled communications vendors.
Utilities, energy companies, financial institutions, and government buyers can use disclosed foreign-ownership information to make more informed procurement and partnership decisions for broadband and communications services.
Small business owners, consumers, and middle-class families could face higher prices or less competition because listed companies may suffer reputational harm and licensees will incur compliance costs that can be passed on to customers.
Financial institutions and utilities/energy companies may lose Paperwork Reduction Act protections, reducing privacy oversight and transparency for information collected about those entities.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced January 27, 2025 by Debra Fischer · Last progress October 24, 2025
Requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to create and keep a public online list of companies and other entities that hold FCC authorizations, licenses, or grants and that are owned or controlled by governments or entities from specified foreign countries. It sets near-term deadlines for an initial list of certain license types and a timeline for rulemaking and broader data collection to add other authorization holders, and it exempts the required information collections from the usual Paperwork Reduction Act review. The bill defines covered countries and covered entities, directs the FCC to publish an initial list within 120 days, to complete rulemaking within 18 months, and to place newly identified entities on the public list within one year after the rules are issued, with at least annual updates thereafter.