I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1717
To direct the Federal Communications Commission to establish a council
to make recommendations on ways to increase the security, reliability,
and interoperability of communications networks, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY27, 2025
Mr. M
ENENDEZintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To direct the Federal Communications Commission to estab-
lish a council to make recommendations on ways to in-
crease the security, reliability, and interoperability of
communications networks, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Communications Secu-4
rity Act’’. 5
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•HR 1717 IH
SEC. 2. COUNCIL ON COMMUNICATIONS SECURITY, RELI-1
ABILITY, AND INTEROPERABILITY. 2
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 90 days after 3
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission 4
shall— 5
(1) establish a council to advise the Commission 6
on issues including the security, reliability, and 7
interoperability of communications networks; or 8
(2) designate for purposes of this section an ad-9
visory committee of the Commission that is oper-10
ating on the date of the enactment of this Act under 11
a charter for the purpose of addressing the issues 12
described in paragraph (1) and, if the membership 13
of such committee does not comply with subsection 14
(b), modify such membership to comply with such 15
subsection. 16
(b) M
EMBERSHIP.— 17
(1) A
PPOINTMENT.—The members of the coun-18
cil shall be appointed by the Chair. 19
(2) C
OMPOSITION.—To the extent practicable, 20
the membership of the council shall be composed of 21
the following: 22
(A) Representatives of companies in the 23
communications industry, except companies 24
that are determined by the Chair to be not 25
trusted. 26
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•HR 1717 IH
(B) Representatives of public interest orga-1
nizations or academic institutions, except public 2
interest organizations or academic institutions 3
that are determined by the Chair to be not 4
trusted. 5
(C) Representatives of the Federal Govern-6
ment, State governments, local governments, or 7
Tribal Governments, with at least one member 8
representing each such type of government. 9
(3) K
NOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE .—Each 10
member of the council shall have knowledge and ex-11
perience relevant to the purpose and goals of the 12
council. 13
(4) T
ERMS.— 14
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Each member of the 15
council shall be appointed for a term of 2 years, 16
except as provided in subparagraph (B). 17
(B) V
ACANCIES.—Any member appointed 18
to fill a vacancy occurring before the expiration 19
of the term for which the member’s predecessor 20
was appointed shall be appointed only for the 21
remainder of that term. A member may serve 22
after the expiration of that member’s term until 23
a successor has taken office. 24
(c) R
EPORTS.— 25
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•HR 1717 IH
(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after 1
the date on which the council is established or des-2
ignated (as the case may be) under subsection (a), 3
and every 2 years thereafter, the council shall sub-4
mit to the Chair each report adopted by the council 5
during the preceding 2-year period, and any report 6
adopted by any working group of the council during 7
such period, including any such report of the council 8
or a working group containing recommendations on 9
ways to increase the security, reliability, and inter-10
operability of communications networks, and on 11
other relevant issues as appropriate. 12
(2) A
VAILABILITY ON COMMISSION WEBSITE .— 13
The Commission shall make each report submitted 14
under paragraph (1) publicly available on the 15
website of the Commission. 16
(d) D
URATION.—Section 1013(a)(2) of title 5, 17
United States Code (relating to the termination of advi-18
sory committees) shall not apply to the council. 19
(e) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 20
(1) C
HAIR.—The term ‘‘Chair’’ means the 21
Chair of the Commission. 22
(2) C
OMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 23
means the Federal Communications Commission. 24
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•HR 1717 IH
(3) COUNCIL.—The term ‘‘council’’ means the 1
council established under subsection (a)(1) or the 2
advisory committee designated under subsection 3
(a)(2), as the case may be. 4
(4) N
OT TRUSTED.— 5
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘‘not trusted’’ 6
means, with respect to an entity, that— 7
(i) the Chair has made a public deter-8
mination that such entity is owned by, con-9
trolled by, or subject to the influence of a 10
foreign adversary; or 11
(ii) the Chair otherwise determines 12
that such entity poses a threat to the na-13
tional security of the United States. 14
(B) C
RITERIA FOR DETERMINATION .—In 15
making a determination under subparagraph 16
(A)(ii), the Chair shall use the criteria de-17
scribed in paragraphs (1) through (4) of section 18
2(c) of the Secure and Trusted Communica-19
tions Networks Act of 2019 (47 U.S.C. 20
1601(c)), as appropriate. 21
(5) S
TATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ has the mean-22
ing given such term in section 3 of the Communica-23
tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 153). 24
Æ
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