The House approved several export control-related bills late Sept. 9, including the Remote Access Security Act, which is designed to close a loophole that has allowed China to use cloud service providers to access advanced U.S. computing chips remotely (see 2409040046).
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
What is the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)?
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the U.S. federal government’s regulatory agency for the majority of telecommunications activity within the country. The FCC oversees radio, television, telephone, satellite, and cable communications, and its primary statutory goal is to expand U.S. citizens’ access to telecommunications services.
The Commission is funded by industry regulatory fees, and is organized into 7 bureaus:
- Consumer & Governmental Affairs
- Enforcement
- Media
- Space
- Wireless Telecommunications
- Wireline Competition
- Public Safety and Homeland Security
As an agency, the FCC receives its high-level directives from Congressional legislation and is empowered by that legislation to establish legal rules the industry must follow.
Latest News from the FCC
The Federal Communications Commission is launching a voluntary labeling program for wireless consumer “Internet of Things” products that have been certified and tested to meet FCC IoT cybersecurity standards, the commission said in a final rule released July 29.
The U.S. should take action against TikTok to prevent sensitive U.S. personal data from being collected by the app’s Chinese owner, said Brendan Carr, one of five commissioners on the Federal Communications Commission. “I don’t believe there is a path forward for anything other than a ban," Carr told Axios, according to a Nov. 1 report by the news outlet. Carr added that there isn't "a world in which you could come up with sufficient protection on the data that you could have sufficient confidence that it’s not finding its way back into the hands of the [Chinese Communist Party]."
President Donald Trump issued a “Team Telecom” executive order on April 4 that formalizes the executive branch’s process for reviewing foreign takeovers of U.S. communications assets, but some observers questioned the extent to which it will alter the status quo. The departments of Homeland Security, Defense and Justice do those evaluations. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said the EO means the commission can advance a 2016 proposal to speed up the review process.