Federal Communications Commission	"FCC  XX-XXX"


STATEMENT OF
CHAIRMAN AJIT PAI

Re: 	Protecting Against National Security Threats to the Communications Supply Chain Through FCC Programs—Huawei Designation, PS Docket No. 19-351.

Just a few minutes ago, we adopted rules requiring certain carriers to remove from their networks equipment that poses a threat to our national security and the integrity of the country’s communications networks and implementing the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program that will help smaller service providers shoulder the cost of removing and replacing such equipment.  Earlier this year, our Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau issued a final designation of Huawei Technologies Company, along with its parent, affiliate, and subsidiary companies, as a national security threat as part of the Commission’s ongoing efforts to protect our nation’s communications networks and their supply chains.
And today, we affirm the Bureau’s Order designating Huawei as a threat to national security and our nation’s communications infrastructure.  A laundry list of evidence before us compels this result and is set forth in our decision today.  But to summarize some of the main points, Huawei has a long and well-documented history of close ties to the Chinese military and intelligence communities, as well as the Chinese Communist Party, at every level of the company—all the way up to its founder.  Huawei is subject to sweeping Chinese intelligence laws compelling Huawei’s assistance and cooperation with Chinese intelligence services and forbidding the disclosure of that assistance.  Moreover, the concerns about Huawei aren’t just hypothetical:  Independent entities have identified numerous security vulnerabilities in Huawei equipment and found it to be less secure than that of other companies—perhaps deliberately so.
Our decision today to uphold the Bureau’s final designation order will have a direct impact on the security and integrity of the country’s networks.  Carriers will continue to be unable to use support from the Commission’s Universal Service Fund to purchase network equipment or services from Huawei, thus helping to keep its insecure equipment out of our networks.
For their continuing commitment to this ongoing effort, I think the Commission staff that contributed to this item, including: Lisa Fowlkes, Jeffery Goldthorp, Jennifer Holtz, Debra Jordan, Nicole McGinnis, Saswat Misra, Austin Randazzo, and Avery Roselle of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau; Pam Arluk, Rhonda Campbell, Elizabeth Cuttner, Justin Faulb, Charlene Goldfield, Janice Gorin, Trent Harkrader, Kris Monteith, Ramesh Nagarajan, Rachel Nixon, Ryan Palmer, and Jaina Patel of the Wireline Competition Bureau; Aaron Garza of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau; and Malena Barzilai, Michael Carlson, Matthew Dunne, Thomas Johnson, Douglas Klein, Rick Mallen, Linda Oliver, and Bill Richardson of the Office of General Counsel.



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