HR 906: Foreign Adversary Communications Transparency Act

HR 906 in plain English: This bill requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to annually publish a list of FCC license holders that have ownership or control ties to China, Iran, North Korea, or Russia. It covers entities holding cable landing licenses, auction-based licenses, and other FCC authorizations. The FCC must also create rules to collect ownership information from licensees to support this transparency effort.

Stated purpose

The bill directs the FCC to publish and annually update a public list of entities that hold FCC licenses or authorizations and have ownership or control ties to China, Iran, North Korea, or Russia.

Key points

• Requires the FCC to publish an annual list of license holders with ties to China, Iran, North Korea, or Russia.
• Covers cable landing licenses, competitively auctioned licenses, and all other FCC authorizations.
• Flags entities where a foreign adversary government or affiliated company holds a voting or equity interest.
• Requires the FCC to issue new rules to collect ownership structure information from licensees.
• National security agencies can also flag licensees as foreign-adversary-controlled for inclusion on the list.

Arguments supporters make

• Publishing this list gives the public and policymakers a clear picture of which U.S. communications licenses are connected to countries considered foreign adversaries, making it harder for those ties to go unnoticed.
• Transparency about foreign ownership in critical communications infrastructure is a low-cost, commonsense step toward protecting national security without outright banning any entity.
• Requiring the FCC to collect and disclose this information closes a gap — currently there is no single, easy-to-find public record of foreign adversary involvement in FCC-licensed operations.

Arguments opponents make

• Being placed on a public government list could unfairly damage the reputation and business of companies that have legal ownership structures but have not been found to pose any actual security threat.
• The bill exempts the information-collection process from the Paperwork Reduction Act, bypassing a standard check meant to limit unnecessary regulatory burdens on businesses.
• Listing entities based on ownership ties alone — without requiring proof of harmful activity — may create a chilling effect that discourages legitimate foreign investment in U.S. communications without making the country measurably safer.

Tradeoffs

Greater public visibility into foreign adversary ties in U.S. communications may improve national security awareness, but it also places compliance costs on the FCC and disclosure burdens on businesses that may hold such ownership ties without having done anything wrong.

Current status in Congress: Passed House.

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