Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB2503 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	I
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION H. R. 2503
5	5	To require the development of a strategy to eliminate the availability to
6	6	foreign adversaries of goods and technologies capable of supporting un-
7	7	dersea cables, and for other purposes.
8	8	IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
9	9	MARCH31, 2025
10	10	Mr. K
11	11	EANintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
12	12	on Foreign Affairs
13	13	A BILL
14	14	To require the development of a strategy to eliminate the
15	15	availability to foreign adversaries of goods and tech-
16	16	nologies capable of supporting undersea cables, and for
17	17	other purposes.
18	18	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
19	19	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
20	20	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
21	21	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Undersea Cable Con-4
22	22	trol Act’’. 5
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25	25	•HR 2503 IH
26	26	SEC. 2. STRATEGY TO ELIMINATE THE AVAILABILITY TO 1
27	27	FOREIGN ADVERSARIES OF ITEMS REQUIRED 2
28	28	FOR SUPPORTING UNDERSEA CABLES. 3
29	29	(a) I
30	30	NGENERAL.—The President, acting through the 4
31	31	Secretary of Commerce and in coordination with the Sec-5
32	32	retary of State, shall develop a strategy to eliminate the 6
33	33	availability to foreign adversaries of items required for 7
34	34	supporting undersea cables consistent with United States 8
35	35	policy described in section 1752 of the Export Control Re-9
36	36	form Act of 2018 (50 U.S.C. 4811). 10
37	37	(b) M
38	38	ATTERSTOBEINCLUDED.—The strategy re-11
39	39	quired under subsection (a) shall include the following: 12
40	40	(1) An identification of items required for sup-13
41	41	porting the construction, maintenance, or operation 14
42	42	of an undersea cable project. 15
43	43	(2) An identification of United States and mul-16
44	44	tilateral export controls and licensing policies for 17
45	45	items identified pursuant to paragraph (1) with re-18
46	46	spect to foreign adversaries. 19
47	47	(3) An identification of United States allies and 20
48	48	partners that have a share of the global market with 21
49	49	respect to the items so identified, including a de-22
50	50	tailed description of the availability of such items 23
51	51	without restriction in sufficient quantities and com-24
52	52	parable in quality to those produced in the United 25
53	53	States. 26
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56	56	•HR 2503 IH
57	57	(4) A description of ongoing negotiations with 1
58	58	other countries to achieve unified export controls 2
59	59	and licensing policies for items so identified to elimi-3
60	60	nate availability to foreign adversaries. 4
61	61	(5) To the extent practicable, an identification 5
62	62	of all identified entities under the control, ownership, 6
63	63	or influence of a foreign adversary that support the 7
64	64	construction, operation, or maintenance of undersea 8
65	65	cables. 9
66	66	(6) A description of efforts taken to promote 10
67	67	United States leadership at international standards- 11
68	68	setting bodies for equipment, systems, software, and 12
69	69	virtually defined networks relevant to undersea ca-13
70	70	bles, taking into account the different processes fol-14
71	71	lowed by such bodies. 15
72	72	(7) A description of the presence and activities 16
73	73	of foreign adversaries at international standards-set-17
74	74	ting bodies relevant to undersea cables, including in-18
75	75	formation on the differences in the scope and scale 19
76	76	of the engagement of foreign adversaries at such 20
77	77	bodies compared to engagement at such bodies by 21
78	78	the United States and its allies and partners, and 22
79	79	the security risks raised by the proposals of foreign 23
80	80	adversaries at such bodies. 24
81	81	(c) R
82	82	EPORT.— 25
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85	85	•HR 2503 IH
86	86	(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 1
87	87	after the date of the enactment of this Act and an-2
88	88	nually thereafter for 3 years, the President shall 3
89	89	submit to the appropriate congressional committees 4
90	90	a report that contains the strategy required under 5
91	91	subsection (a). 6
92	92	(2) F
93	93	ORM.—Each report required under this 7
94	94	subsection shall— 8
95	95	(A) be submitted in unclassified form, but 9
96	96	may contain a classified annex; and 10
97	97	(B) be made available on a publicly acces-11
98	98	sible Federal Government website. 12
99	99	(d) A
100	100	GREEMENT.— 13
101	101	(1) I
102	102	N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 14
103	103	the date of the enactment of this Act, the President 15
104	104	shall seek to— 16
105	105	(A) establish bilateral or multilateral 17
106	106	agreements with allies and partners identified 18
107	107	pursuant to subsection (b)(3) to seek to elimi-19
108	108	nate the availability to foreign adversaries of 20
109	109	items identified pursuant to subsection (b)(1); 21
110	110	and 22
111	111	(B) include in such agreements penalty 23
112	112	provisions for noncompliance. 24
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115	115	•HR 2503 IH
116	116	(2) BRIEFINGS.—The President shall brief the 1
117	117	congressional committees specified in subsection 2
118	118	(c)(1) on negotiations to establish agreements de-3
119	119	scribed in paragraph (1) beginning not later than 30 4
120	120	days after receipt of the report required under sub-5
121	121	section (a) and every 180 days thereafter until each 6
122	122	such agreement is established. 7
123	123	(e) A
124	124	CTIONS.— 8
125	125	(1) I
126	126	N GENERAL.—The Secretary of Commerce 9
127	127	shall evaluate the export, reexport, and in-country 10
128	128	transfer of the items identified pursuant to sub-11
129	129	section (b)(1) for appropriate controls under the Ex-12
130	130	port Administration Regulations, including by evalu-13
131	131	ating, for each item so identified, whether to add the 14
132	132	technology to the Commerce Control List maintained 15
133	133	under title 15, Code of Federal Regulations. 16
134	134	(2) L
135	135	EVELS OF CONTROL.— 17
136	136	(A) I
137	137	N GENERAL.—In determining the 18
138	138	level of control appropriate for items identified 19
139	139	pursuant to subsection (b)(1), including re-20
140	140	quirements for a license or other authorization 21
141	141	for the export, reexport, or in-country transfer 22
142	142	of any such technology, the Secretary of Com-23
143	143	merce (in coordination with the Secretary of 24
144	144	Defense, the Secretary of State, and the heads 25
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147	147	•HR 2503 IH
148	148	of other Federal agencies, as appropriate) shall 1
149	149	take into account the potential end uses and 2
150	150	end users of the item. 3
151	151	(B) S
152	152	TATEMENT OF POLICY .—At a min-4
153	153	imum, it is the policy of the United States to 5
154	154	work with its allies and partners to control the 6
155	155	export, reexport, or in-country transfer of tech-7
156	156	nologies identified pursuant to subsection (b)(1) 8
157	157	to or in a country subject to an embargo, in-9
158	158	cluding an arms embargo, imposed by the 10
159	159	United States. 11
160	160	(3) N
161	161	OTIFICATION.—Not later than 1 year 12
162	162	after the date of enactment of this Act, and annually 13
163	163	thereafter for 3 years, the President, acting through 14
164	164	the Secretary of Commerce, shall submit to the ap-15
165	165	propriate congressional committees an unclassified 16
166	166	notification describing the results of actions taken 17
167	167	pursuant to this subsection in the preceding period, 18
168	168	including a description of— 19
169	169	(A) the individual items evaluated for con-20
170	170	trols; and 21
171	171	(B) the rationale, including United States 22
172	172	national security and foreign policy consider-23
173	173	ations, for adding or not adding an item to the 24
174	174	Commerce Control List maintained under title 25
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177	177	•HR 2503 IH
178	178	15, Code of Federal Regulations, pursuant to 1
179	179	the evaluation under paragraph (1) with respect 2
180	180	to such item. 3
181	181	(f) D
182	182	EFINITIONS.—In this section: 4
183	183	(1) A
184	184	PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -5
185	185	TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-6
186	186	mittees’’ means— 7
187	187	(A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 8
188	188	the House of Representatives; and 9
189	189	(B) the Committee on Banking, Housing, 10
190	190	and Urban Affairs of the Senate. 11
191	191	(2) F
192	192	OREIGN ADVERSARY .—The term ‘‘foreign 12
193	193	adversary’’ has the meaning given such term in sec-13
194	194	tion 8(c) of the Secure and Trusted Communications 14
195	195	Networks Act of 2019 (47 U.S.C. 1607(c)). 15
196	196	(3) I
197	197	TEM.—The term ‘‘item’’ has the meaning 16
198	198	given such term in the Export Administration Regu-17
199	199	lations (15 C.F.R. 772.1). 18
200	200	Æ
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