- effectively and efficiently review foreign carriers' applications and monitor foreign carriers' operations.
- Congress should require the EO Telecom Committee to formally coordinate reviews of foreign carrier applications with CFIUS. The EO Telecom Committee's component agencies are members of CFIUS. CFIUS's and the EO Telecom Committee's processes overlap when a foreign investor seeks to acquire control of a U.S. telecommunications operator or infrastructure owner. These applications already undergo extensive review by CFIUS. Requiring formal coordination between CFIUS and the EO Telecom Committee will streamline the regulatory clearance process while meeting national security, law enforcement, trade policy, and foreign policy objectives.
- Congress should provide the EO Telecom Committee with authority to recommend revocation of a carrier's authorization, even where no security agreement exists between it and the carrier. Where no security agreement existed, Team Telecom did not interact with the foreign carrier. Although certain government officials believed that Team Telecom could review. an existing authorization, even where no agreement existed, there is no formal, legal basis for such review. Combined with a requirement to periodically renew authorizations, affording the EO Telecom Committee the authority to review and recommend revocation of existing authorizations, even without a security agreement in place, allows the EO Telecom Committee to better respond to the evolving nature of national security risks.
- Congress should require the periodic review and renewal of security agreements between the EO Telecom Committee and foreign carriers. Team Telecom officials told the Subcommittee that, even if it believed that a security agreement was not comprehensive to address all risks associated with a foreign carrier's operations, it had little leverage to update the agreement. This means that certain risks, which could otherwise be mitigated, may go unaddressed. Requiring a periodic review and renewal of security agreements provides the EO Telecom Committee yet another tool to ensure that national security and other risks are regularly assessed and addressed.
- The EO Telecom Committee should establish formal, written policies and procedures governing its monitoring of compliance with security agreements. Team Telecom had no formal, written processes governing its monitoring of a foreign carrier's
14
