Undersea Cable Control Act

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1189) to require the development of a strategy to eliminate the availability to foreign adversaries of goods and technologies capable of supporting undersea cables, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on this measure.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1189, the Undersea Cable Control Act.

What is this about at a higher level? It is about this: Don't enable our adversaries. Don't allow them to become stronger than us, or to make us reliant upon them, or to catch up to us in any way whatsoever, especially China.

How does this relate to the bill? Undersea cables, if you are not familiar, carry about 99 percent of transoceanic

digital communications--think things like voice communications, data, internet, trillions of daily international financial transactions, things that you don't want China getting ahold of. They serve as the backbone--a framework, really--for the global internet.

These cables enable consumers, businesses, governments, and the military to communicate securely with each other and to access the internet. That is pretty dadgum important.

The United States derives significant benefits from its leading position in global subsea cable networks, which carry the vast majority of voice and internet traffic between continents. However, in recent years, Chinese companies--heavily subsidized, of course, by the PRC, the Communist government--have started investing heavily in owning and supplying subsea cables.

I would say it in this way: Imagine if we allowed, during the Cold War, the Soviet Union to buy up radio component companies in the United States of America and other places. What would things have been like? What kind of danger would that have been? That is the way that we should look at this.

The U.S. has to look at the supply, the ownership, of these cables as another front in our competition with the PRC, where their aim is to supplant, like anything, the United States of America's position.

This is not just an economic issue. The Chinese will steal information. They will make it unsecure. They want our transmissions. They weaponize all forms of telecommunications that they can. They weaponize every bit of social media that they can. They try to make these capabilities fit their own nefarious ends.

Do we really think for a second that they would not do the same with undersea cables?

I am not going to be fooled into thinking that. That is why I have introduced the Undersea Cable Control Act. It is a bipartisan bill that will direct the President to develop a strategy to eliminate American technologies capable of supporting undersea cables from falling into the hands of our adversaries, blocking our adversaries' abilities to develop and perfect undersea cable capabilities. It is a critical step for our security.

Mr. Speaker, I thank you for listening to my opinions on this issue, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I encourage us to look at the world in this way: Everything with China and everything with communists is competition. It is competition against America. It is competition against our democratic values, our way of life, the way that we operate, the way that we pride ourselves on freedom. I don't kick well, but I am prepared to kick their ass in anything.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I rise in support of H.R. 1189.

The United States faces a strategic competitor in China that, as National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has stated, ``is determined to overtake U.S. technological leadership and willing to devote nearly limitless resources to that goal.'' This technological competition will have a tremendous impact on our national security and economic interests.

Beijing is trying to take the lead in building the world's digital infrastructure as part of its Belt and Road Initiative. Increasingly, this push includes a focus on undersea cables, which carry over 95 percent of all international internet traffic, according to a recent Reuters report.

These cables transmit mundane things like emails and Facebook postings, but they also transmit more sensitive things such as financial transactions, as well as proprietary information or government secrets.

It is in our interest and in the interest of our partners and allies that these crucial data pathways are not vulnerable to attacks and espionage, which is harder to do if they are built and operated by PRC entities.

We got an example of that last month when two communications cables that connected Taiwan to two of its islands were cut by civilian PRC vessels, disconnecting 14,000 residents from the internet.

This bipartisan measure by Representative Brian Mast and Representative Andy Kim aims to put the United States in a position to reduce such risks and win the competition over who gets to develop the physical infrastructure that will drive the digital commerce of the coming decades.

H.R. 1189 requires the development of a strategy to eliminate the availability to foreign adversaries of goods and technologies capable of supporting undersea cables. It also calls on the Bureau of Industry and Security to apply export controls on the goods identified in the strategy and work with our partners to ensure those goods and technologies are not being exported to China.

The United States needs to be proactive in the competition with the PRC. This important bipartisan measure is an example of how we can secure American and global interests by using U.S. policy tools in an effective and timely fashion.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this bill. H.R. 1189 is a timely and forward-thinking bill. The United States is already engaged in a commercial competition with the PRC to win contracts to build undersea cables and create the technologies that power this vital infrastructure. It is important that the United States Government have a proactive strategy to win this critical area of competition with the PRC.

Some PRC companies involved in undersea cable development are actively engaged in helping to modernize the People's Liberation Army as part of China's civil-military fusion strategy. This raises clear national security concerns that warrant the use of export controls to ensure that American goods and technologies are not contributing to that effort. This bill will result in coordination with our partners and our allies to ensure that Beijing is not able to compromise our national security through the development of PRC-sponsored undersea cables.

Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleagues will join me and support this important bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.