Cantwell Opposes Carr's Draft Reversal of FCC's Salt Typhoon Declaratory Ruling
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., on Tuesday urged FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to “reverse course” on his draft order undoing the agency’s response earlier this year to the Salt Typhoon attacks. The agency is set to vote on the proposal Thursday (see 2510300054). The FCC ruled in January that Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) Section 105 requires telecom carriers to secure their networks against cyberattacks (see 2501160041). Carr’s draft would also withdraw an NPRM on cybersecurity requirements that was issued along with the declaratory ruling.
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“With these highly sophisticated foreign threat actors, our efforts should be focused on further enhancing the cybersecurity of our critical infrastructure networks, not rolling back existing protections,” Cantwell said in a letter to Carr. The FCC’s January declaratory ruling “simply brought the agency’s interpretation of the statute in line with current network realities. This step was one of the first updates to the FCC’s implementation of CALEA in decades and a commonsense [acknowledgment] that providers are responsible for protecting public safety against cybersecurity threats.”
Carr’s “proposal to rescind this ruling would undermine the FCC’s ability to hold carriers accountable for protecting our nation’s critical communications infrastructure,” Cantwell added. “I am concerned that your move to drop cybersecurity requirements on carriers is part of a pattern of weakness on national security issues.”