A bipartisan group of lawmakers is calling on the Trump administration to establish a national 5G strategy and spearhead efforts to develop and implement next-generation technologies.
The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations said Tuesday that leaders of the Select Committee on Intelligence as well as the Armed Services, Foreign Relations and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees are urging National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien to appoint a senior official responsible for leading the implementation of future telecommunications capabilities.
The senators wrote in a letter to O’Brien that the government is currently taking a “fractured approach†to deploying new telecom technologies and need a national strategy informed by an understanding of 5G’s technical and geopolitical impact.
“In our view, the current national level approach to 5G comprises of a dispersed coalition of common concern, rather than a coordinated, interagency activity,†the senators said.
The letter’s signatories include Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J.; Jim Risch, R-Idaho; Richard Burr, R-N.C.; Mark Warner, D-Va.; Ron Johnson, R-Wis.; Gary Peters, D-Mich.; Jim Inhofe, R-Okla.; and Jack Reed, D-R.I.
