A council of officials from the General Services Administration, NASA and the Department of Defense published an interim rule that would prohibit federal agencies from buying telecommunications and video surveillance systems and services from Huawei and four other Chinese telecom companies, Nextgov reported Tuesday.
“This interim rule is being implemented as a national security measure to protect government information, and government information and communication technology systems,†the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council said in a Federal Register notice published Tuesday.
The proposed rule seeks to comply with the 2019 National Defense Administration Act and would direct contracting officers to include FAR provisions in solicitations issued after Aug. 13 and resulting contracts as well as request for proposals published before the said date provided that the contract award will occur after Aug. 13.
The policy would also require vendors to report whether their offerings include “covered†telecom services and equipment. The other four Chinese firms cited in the rule are ZTE, Hytera Communications, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology and Dahua Technology. Stakeholders have until Oct. 15 to submit comments on the interim rule.
