A Council for National Security has been established within the Federal Communications Commission to fully harness FCC’s regulatory, investigative and enforcement powers to counter foreign threats, particularly adversarial Chinese efforts.
Brendan Carr, the new FCC chairman under the Trump administration, said in announcing the council’s formation that he had appointed his national security counsel, Adam Chan, as its director.
Representatives from eight FCC bureaus and offices will comprise the council for cross-agency collaboration and information-sharing to support the commission’s national security engagements with partners in the government’s executive and legislative branches.
According to Carr, a longtime FCC commissioner under the Biden and Trump administrations, security threats “now cut across a range of sectors” that the commission regulates, underscoring the importance of pulling resources across from various FCC organizations.
Three-pronged Goal
Carr assigned three objectives to the new council, with the first focused on reducing the U.S. technology and telecommunication sectors’ reliance on the trade and supply chain of foreign adversaries. The council’s second goal seeks the mitigation U.S. exposure to foreign cyberattacks, espionage and surveillance.
For its third objective, the council will focus on ensuring U.S. dominance over China in critical technologies, such as 5G and 6G, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, quantum computing, autonomous systems, and satellites and space.
In January, the former FCC head, Jessica Rosenworcel, proposed that the commission start auctioning advanced wireless services-3 spectrum as soon as possible to fund the removal and replacement of China-made Huawei and ZTE equipment from U.S. networks.
