Senate Passes Pair of Bills to Safeguard Broadband Supply Chains

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6, 2025 – The Senate on Tuesday unanimously approved two bills designed to safeguard major infrastructure initiatives, including federal broadband projects, from future component shortages.

Among them was the Network Equipment Transparency (NET) Act which directs the Federal Communications Commission to regularly assess how the availability of network equipment affects broadband deployment timelines and universal service programs.

Led by Sens. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., the measure amends the Communications Act to add a new reporting requirement within the FCC’s Communications Marketplace Report, ensuring Congress will be alerted to bottlenecks that could delay broadband buildouts.

The “NET Act will ensure broadband projects, like those from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, remain on track by identifying supply chain gaps early,” the senators’ press release states.

In a related effort, the Senate passed the Critical Infrastructure Manufacturing Feasibility Act, co-led by Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Lisa Rochester, D-Del., to strengthen domestic production across critical sectors, including telecommunications.

The bill directs the Secretary of Commerce to conduct a one-year study on whether products essential to critical infrastructure can be manufactured in the United States rather than imported.

Ernst’s bill would cover all 16 critical infrastructure sectors identified by the federal government in 2013 – including telecommunications, energy, financial services, healthcare, and transportation systems.

The Commerce Department would be tasked with identifying infrastructure products that are in high demand, assessing the costs and benefits of making them domestically, and pinpointing federal rules that make domestic production more difficult. 

The department would deliver its findings to Congress within 18 months.

A House version of Ernst’s bill passed in April; no companion measure exists yet for Hickenlooper’s NET Act.

Together, the two bills reflect bipartisan concern that fragile supply chains and national security risks could jeopardize broadband expansion and other infrastructure priorities.