I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1795
To impose sanctions with respect to foreign telecommunications companies
engaged in economic or industrial espionage against United States per-
sons, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH3, 2025
Ms. H
OULAHAN(for herself and Mr. STRONG) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
A BILL
To impose sanctions with respect to foreign telecommuni-
cations companies engaged in economic or industrial espi-
onage against United States persons, and for other pur-
poses.
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 ‘‘Neutralizing Emerging 4
Threats from Wireless OEMs Receiving direction from 5
Kleptocracies and Surveillance states Act’’ or the ‘‘NET-6
WORKS Act’’. 7
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SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 1
It is the sense of Congress that— 2
(1) secure telecommunications networks, both 3
domestically and within partner and allied nations, 4
are important to the national security of the United 5
States; 6
(2) the risks posed by untrusted telecommuni-7
cations vendors, particularly those based in the Peo-8
ple’s Republic of China, to communications, data se-9
curity, and the viability of networks outweigh any 10
potential benefits; and 11
(3) the United States Government should use 12
the tools of economic statecraft to promote secure 13
telecommunications networks. 14
SEC. 3. IMPOSITION OF SANCTIONS WITH RESPECT TO ECO-15
NOMIC OR INDUSTRIAL ESPIONAGE BY FOR-16
EIGN TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANIES. 17
(a) I
NGENERAL.—On and after the date that is 90 18
days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Presi-19
dent shall exercise all of the powers granted to the Presi-20
dent under the International Emergency Economic Powers 21
Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) to the extent necessary to 22
block and prohibit all significant transactions in property 23
and interests in property of a foreign person described in 24
subsection (b) if such property and interests in property 25
are in the United States, come within the United States, 26
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or are or come within the possession or control of a United 1
States person. 2
(b) F
OREIGNPERSONSDESCRIBED.—A foreign per-3
son is described in this subsection if the President deter-4
mines that the person, on or after the date of the enact-5
ment of this Act— 6
(1) produces fifth or future generation tele-7
communications technology; and 8
(2) conducts business relating to such tele-9
communications technology in a manner contrary to 10
the United States’ national security interests. 11
(c) E
XCEPTIONS.— 12
(1) E
XCEPTION FOR INTELLIGENCE ACTIVI -13
TIES.—Sanctions under this section shall not apply 14
to any activity subject to the reporting requirements 15
under title V of the National Security Act of 1947 16
(50 U.S.C. 3091 et seq.) or any authorized intel-17
ligence activities of the United States. 18
(2) E
XCEPTION RELATING TO THE PROVISION 19
OF HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE .—Sanctions under 20
this section may not be imposed with respect to 21
transactions or the facilitation of transactions for— 22
(A) the sale of agricultural commodities, 23
food, medicine, or medical devices; 24
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(B) the provision of humanitarian assist-1
ance; 2
(C) financial transactions relating to hu-3
manitarian assistance; or 4
(D) transporting goods or services that are 5
necessary to carry out operations relating to 6
humanitarian assistance. 7
(d) W
AIVER.—The President may waive the applica-8
tion of sanctions under this section with respect to a for-9
eign person for renewable periods of not more than 90 10
days each if the President determines and reports to Con-11
gress that such a waiver is vital to the national security 12
interests of the United States. 13
(e) I
MPLEMENTATION; PENALTIES.— 14
(1) I
MPLEMENTATION.—The President may ex-15
ercise the authorities provided to the President 16
under sections 203 and 205 of the International 17
Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702 18
and 1704) to the extent necessary to carry out this 19
section. 20
(2) P
ENALTIES.—A person that violates, at-21
tempts to violate, conspires to violate, or causes a 22
violation of subsection (a) or any regulation, license, 23
or order issued to carry out that subsection shall be 24
subject to the penalties set forth in subsections (b) 25
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and (c) of section 206 of the International Emer-1
gency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1705) to the 2
same extent as a person that commits an unlawful 3
act described in subsection (a) of that section. 4
(f) D
EFINITIONS.— 5
(1) I
N GENERAL.—In this section: 6
(A) F
IFTH OR FUTURE GENERATION 7
TELECOMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY .—The 8
term ‘‘fifth or future generation telecommuni-9
cations technology’’ means telecommunications 10
technology that conforms to the technical stand-11
ards followed by the telecommunications indus-12
try for telecommunications technology that is 13
commonly known in the industry as fifth gen-14
eration or future generation technology. 15
(B) F
OREIGN PERSON.—The term ‘‘foreign 16
person’’ means any person that is not a United 17
States person. 18
(C) K
NOWINGLY.—The term ‘‘knowingly’’, 19
with respect to conduct, a circumstance, or a 20
result, means that a person has actual knowl-21
edge, or should have known, of the conduct, the 22
circumstance, or the result. 23
(D) P
ERSON.—The term ‘‘person’’ means 24
an individual or entity. 25
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(E) UNITED STATES PERSON .—The term 1
‘‘United States person’’ means— 2
(i) a United States citizen or an alien 3
lawfully admitted for permanent residence 4
to the United States; or 5
(ii) an entity organized under the laws 6
of the United States or any jurisdiction 7
within the United States, including a for-8
eign branch of such an entity. 9
(F) U
NTRUSTED TELECOMMUNICATIONS 10
VENDOR.—The term ‘‘untrusted telecommuni-11
cations vendor’’ has the meaning given to the 12
term ‘‘covered communications equipment or 13
service’’ in section 9 of the Secure and Trusted 14
Communications Network Act of 2019 (47 15
U.S.C. 1608). 16
(2) D
ETERMINATION OF SIGNIFICANCE .—For 17
the purposes of this section, in determining if trans-18
actions are significant, the President may consider 19
the totality of the facts and circumstances, including 20
factors similar to the factors set forth in section 21
561.404 of title 31, Code of Federal Regulations (or 22
any corresponding similar regulation or ruling). 23
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(3) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—For purposes of 1
this section, a transaction shall not be construed to 2
include— 3
(A) participation in an international stand-4
ards-setting body or the activities of such a 5
body; or 6
(B) a transaction involving existing third 7
or fourth generation telecommunications net-8
works. 9
Æ
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