Justice Department endorses bill to counter foreign tech companies

The Justice Department is officially coming out in support of the Restrict Act, a bipartisan proposal that would allow the federal government to regulate and ban foreign technology that is deemed a national security risk. 

Lately, the hot topic has been TikTok, and the Chinese Communist Party’s ability to use it to collect American’s data. But this applies to all companies that pose a national security risk including Huawei, ZTE, and Russia’s Kaspersky Lab.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia: “So instead of playing Whac-a-mole on Huawei one day, ZTE the next, Kaspersky, TikTok, we need a more comprehensive approach to evaluating and mitigating these threats.” 

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco released a statement saying: “The RESTRICT Act would also ensure that the Department of Justice has the authorities we need to go after adversaries and enablers who violate the law and put our people and businesses at risk.”

She added that the department looks forward to working with members on both sides of the aisle to get it  signed into law. 

It’s rare but not unheard of for the Justice Department to officially endorse legislation. 

Last March the department endorsed a bipartisan bill led by Senators Amy Klobuchar and Chuck Grassley to ensure big tech companies like google, apple, and amazon, can’t discriminate in favor of their own products and services. As an example, if you googled- I need a cloud based storage service, google couldn’t prioritize their service in its search results over rivals. 

As for the Restrict Act, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimando also endorsed it, and said she wants to help get it through Congress. 

Straight Arrow News will continue to follow national security issues and measures to address it by congress. So stick with us for unbiased, straight facts.