Senators Marco Rubio and Ed Markey have introduced legislation, the Secure Equipment Act, to eliminate the loophole allowing entities to purchase Huawei and ZTE equipment with private and non-federal funds. The FCC adopted rules in 2020 requiring U.S. telecommunications carriers to replace and remove Huawei, ZTE, and other companies’ equipment from their networks due to the significant risk those companies’ equipment posed to U.S. national security. But those rules only banned use of federal funds to purchase equipment from those companies, thus allowing U.S. companies to purchase the companies’ high-risk equipment with private funds and non-federal funds, including state and local funds. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr has applauded the introduction of this bill stating that it is “necessary to safeguard our national security.”
