Senate Passes Bill Calling Scrutinizing Ownership of FCC Licensees

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24, 2025 – The Senate passed on Thursday a bill that would require the Federal Communications Commission to publish a list of licensees with financial ties to China and other countries deemed security threats by U.S. lawmakers. The House passed a very similar version of the bill in April.

The Foreign Adversary Communications Transparency Act would give the FCC 120 days to publish a list of companies that hold wireless or subsea cable licenses and have a level of covered country ownership that’s required to be reported to the agency. That threshold is usually 10 percent.

Covered countries include China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. The bill would also direct the agency to initiate a rulemaking to collect ownership information on other FCC authorization holders.

The bill was introduced by Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., in January, along with Sens. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M.

“The reality is that our foreign adversaries have stakes in numerous companies operating freely and legally within the United States,” Fischer said on the Senate floor in May. “Yet, in many cases, the public remains unaware of which companies are owned – wholly or partially – by these adversaries.”

Like Congress, the FCC has been hawkish on China on a bipartisan basis. Continuing a plan that began under the Biden administration, the agency moved earlier this year to block Chinese-owned labs from its device authorization program and began removing test labs under the new rule last month.

At its meeting next week, the agency will vote on an order that would prohibit the authorization of new wireless devices for sale in the U.S. if they contain components manufactured by already blacklisted Chinese companies like Huawei. The order would also prohibit continued imports and marketing of devices that were cleared before their manufacturers were blacklisted.

FCC device authorizations, necessary before new wireless devices like smartphones and routers can be sold in the U.S., are currently all on pause because of the government shutdown, something FCC Chairman Brendan Carr bemoaned at a Washington event Thursday.

“We’ve got potentially thousands of applications for device certifications that are sitting there,” he said.

ProPublic reported this month that SpaceX has some level of direct Chinese investment, something not previously known, but the company has told the FCC that no one owns more than 10 percent of the company other than Elon Musk.