Undersea Cable Control Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. KEAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2503, the Undersea Cable Control Act.

Undersea cables have long been an integral part of America's transcontinental communication and data transmission. The Undersea Cable Control Act is a crucial, bipartisan piece of legislation designed to protect U.S. national security and ensure continued U.S. technological leadership.

By limiting our foreign adversaries' access to undersea cabling infrastructure, we can protect U.S. leadership from the influence of adversarial governments, like the Chinese Communist Party.

I think we can all agree, regardless of which side of the aisle we stand on, that there is a need to ensure technologies critical to America's telecommunications infrastructure do not end up in the wrong hands.

Undersea cables carry approximately 99 percent of transoceanic digital traffic, enabling $10 trillion in daily financial transactions and contributing hundreds of billions of dollars to the U.S. economy every year.

Mr. Speaker, undersea cable infrastructure has become the digital background for the modern global economy. Recent attacks on the transcontinental cable have exposed vulnerabilities in the framework.

However, this bill directs Congress and the State Department to develop a strategy to eliminate adversarial access to the key technologies used in undersea cables. This strengthens our export controls, requires transparency and public reporting, and promotes collaboration with our allies abroad to ensure our standards and infrastructure are secure.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Mast of the House Foreign Affairs Committee for authoring this bill during the 118th Congress. I am honored to continue the legacy he began.

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