I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2503
To require the development of a strategy to eliminate the availability to
foreign adversaries of goods and technologies capable of supporting un-
dersea cables, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH31, 2025
Mr. K
EANintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Foreign Affairs
A BILL
To require the development of a strategy to eliminate the
availability to foreign adversaries of goods and tech-
nologies capable of supporting undersea cables, 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 ‘‘Undersea Cable Con-4
trol Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. STRATEGY TO ELIMINATE THE AVAILABILITY TO 1
FOREIGN ADVERSARIES OF ITEMS REQUIRED 2
FOR SUPPORTING UNDERSEA CABLES. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The President, acting through the 4
Secretary of Commerce and in coordination with the Sec-5
retary of State, shall develop a strategy to eliminate the 6
availability to foreign adversaries of items required for 7
supporting undersea cables consistent with United States 8
policy described in section 1752 of the Export Control Re-9
form Act of 2018 (50 U.S.C. 4811). 10
(b) M
ATTERSTOBEINCLUDED.—The strategy re-11
quired under subsection (a) shall include the following: 12
(1) An identification of items required for sup-13
porting the construction, maintenance, or operation 14
of an undersea cable project. 15
(2) An identification of United States and mul-16
tilateral export controls and licensing policies for 17
items identified pursuant to paragraph (1) with re-18
spect to foreign adversaries. 19
(3) An identification of United States allies and 20
partners that have a share of the global market with 21
respect to the items so identified, including a de-22
tailed description of the availability of such items 23
without restriction in sufficient quantities and com-24
parable in quality to those produced in the United 25
States. 26
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(4) A description of ongoing negotiations with 1
other countries to achieve unified export controls 2
and licensing policies for items so identified to elimi-3
nate availability to foreign adversaries. 4
(5) To the extent practicable, an identification 5
of all identified entities under the control, ownership, 6
or influence of a foreign adversary that support the 7
construction, operation, or maintenance of undersea 8
cables. 9
(6) A description of efforts taken to promote 10
United States leadership at international standards- 11
setting bodies for equipment, systems, software, and 12
virtually defined networks relevant to undersea ca-13
bles, taking into account the different processes fol-14
lowed by such bodies. 15
(7) A description of the presence and activities 16
of foreign adversaries at international standards-set-17
ting bodies relevant to undersea cables, including in-18
formation on the differences in the scope and scale 19
of the engagement of foreign adversaries at such 20
bodies compared to engagement at such bodies by 21
the United States and its allies and partners, and 22
the security risks raised by the proposals of foreign 23
adversaries at such bodies. 24
(c) R
EPORT.— 25
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(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 1
after the date of the enactment of this Act and an-2
nually thereafter for 3 years, the President shall 3
submit to the appropriate congressional committees 4
a report that contains the strategy required under 5
subsection (a). 6
(2) F
ORM.—Each report required under this 7
subsection shall— 8
(A) be submitted in unclassified form, but 9
may contain a classified annex; and 10
(B) be made available on a publicly acces-11
sible Federal Government website. 12
(d) A
GREEMENT.— 13
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 14
the date of the enactment of this Act, the President 15
shall seek to— 16
(A) establish bilateral or multilateral 17
agreements with allies and partners identified 18
pursuant to subsection (b)(3) to seek to elimi-19
nate the availability to foreign adversaries of 20
items identified pursuant to subsection (b)(1); 21
and 22
(B) include in such agreements penalty 23
provisions for noncompliance. 24
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(2) BRIEFINGS.—The President shall brief the 1
congressional committees specified in subsection 2
(c)(1) on negotiations to establish agreements de-3
scribed in paragraph (1) beginning not later than 30 4
days after receipt of the report required under sub-5
section (a) and every 180 days thereafter until each 6
such agreement is established. 7
(e) A
CTIONS.— 8
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary of Commerce 9
shall evaluate the export, reexport, and in-country 10
transfer of the items identified pursuant to sub-11
section (b)(1) for appropriate controls under the Ex-12
port Administration Regulations, including by evalu-13
ating, for each item so identified, whether to add the 14
technology to the Commerce Control List maintained 15
under title 15, Code of Federal Regulations. 16
(2) L
EVELS OF CONTROL.— 17
(A) I
N GENERAL.—In determining the 18
level of control appropriate for items identified 19
pursuant to subsection (b)(1), including re-20
quirements for a license or other authorization 21
for the export, reexport, or in-country transfer 22
of any such technology, the Secretary of Com-23
merce (in coordination with the Secretary of 24
Defense, the Secretary of State, and the heads 25
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of other Federal agencies, as appropriate) shall 1
take into account the potential end uses and 2
end users of the item. 3
(B) S
TATEMENT OF POLICY .—At a min-4
imum, it is the policy of the United States to 5
work with its allies and partners to control the 6
export, reexport, or in-country transfer of tech-7
nologies identified pursuant to subsection (b)(1) 8
to or in a country subject to an embargo, in-9
cluding an arms embargo, imposed by the 10
United States. 11
(3) N
OTIFICATION.—Not later than 1 year 12
after the date of enactment of this Act, and annually 13
thereafter for 3 years, the President, acting through 14
the Secretary of Commerce, shall submit to the ap-15
propriate congressional committees an unclassified 16
notification describing the results of actions taken 17
pursuant to this subsection in the preceding period, 18
including a description of— 19
(A) the individual items evaluated for con-20
trols; and 21
(B) the rationale, including United States 22
national security and foreign policy consider-23
ations, for adding or not adding an item to the 24
Commerce Control List maintained under title 25
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15, Code of Federal Regulations, pursuant to 1
the evaluation under paragraph (1) with respect 2
to such item. 3
(f) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 4
(1) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -5
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-6
mittees’’ means— 7
(A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 8
the House of Representatives; and 9
(B) the Committee on Banking, Housing, 10
and Urban Affairs of the Senate. 11
(2) F
OREIGN ADVERSARY .—The term ‘‘foreign 12
adversary’’ has the meaning given such term in sec-13
tion 8(c) of the Secure and Trusted Communications 14
Networks Act of 2019 (47 U.S.C. 1607(c)). 15
(3) I
TEM.—The term ‘‘item’’ has the meaning 16
given such term in the Export Administration Regu-17
lations (15 C.F.R. 772.1). 18
Æ
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