Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Marco Rubio of Florida and four other Republicans urged President Joe Biden Monday to “take immediate action to halt” Huawei’s attempt to circumvent U.S. restrictions on semiconductor exports to the company by providing money for Chinese startup Pengxinwei (PXW) IC Manufacturing to build a chip manufacturing plant in Shenzhen. The GOP senators in a letter to Biden cited reports Huawei would likely buy most of the semiconductors made at the new factory, which would have capacity to produce chips of up to 14 nanometers. The first chips are expected to be available in the first half of next year. The other signers are: Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Ted Cruz of Texas and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee. “This would represent a dangerous leap in Chinese semiconductor manufacturing, as Chinese chipmakers have thus far only been able to produce 7-nanometer chips in limited quantities,” the senators wrote Biden. “With these new chips for its base stations, Huawei could resume its march towards 5G market dominance,” and the Chinese Communist Party “will advance its plan to control global telecommunications and extend its economic espionage and repression.” The lawmakers said they’re “deeply concerned that, despite the obvious threat that PXW poses, your administration has taken no official steps to delay the project’s progress, despite being aware of the project for some time.” The Bureau of Industry and Security’s “apparent inaction” in not already placing PXW on its entity list “is a dereliction of duty” given the company’s “clear connection with Huawei,” the Republicans said: “As far as we can tell, Commerce has not sent a single ‘informed’ letter to any entities potentially working with PXW, ordering them to halt all shipments to and transactions with the factory.” BIS and Huawei didn’t immediately comment.
The growing demand for fiber due to broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program spending shouldn't mean a shortage of or difficulty for broadband providers in procuring fiber, we were told. Fiber interests say a shortage of labor to do installation work is likely more pressing.
The Senate voted Thursday to confirm Amanda Bennett as U.S. Agency for Global Media CEO and Arati Prabhakar as White House Office of Science and Technology Policy director. The chamber approved Bennett 60-36, with 12 Republicans in support. Senators voted 56-40 for Prabhakar, with 10 Republicans backing him. The chamber voted 60-37 Wednesday to invoke cloture on Bennett and 58-38 for cloture on Prabhakar (see 2209210043). Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., in a floor speech supporting Prabhakar noted the recent enactment of the Chips and Science Act (see 2208090062). The Chips and Science Act represents “a renewed commitment to domestic semiconductor research and manufacturing U.S. leadership in the next-generation chips technology,” Cantwell said: Prabhakar “has the exact experience we need to advise” President Joe Biden “on semiconductor manufacturing, on bringing the supply chain security that we need” in the U.S. “and on continued growth in science and technology jobs that come along with it.” OSTP strategies can help “our nation attract and keep the best and brightest and prioritize collaboration between academia and industry,” Cantwell said. The “partnership between the existing workforce and the workforce of tomorrow needs to grow. This is such a big important issue for us today” and Prabhakar “will help deliver a message that young women all across America need to be involved in the sciences to help our nation in the next phases of innovation.” USAGM hailed Bennett’s confirmation. She “has both the vision and experience to build on our progress, while equipping USAGM to anticipate and confront threats to independent media and reach audiences in need,” said acting CEO Kelu Chao: “This bipartisan confirmation underscores just how critical it is to Congress and our stakeholders alike that USAGM continue to deliver on its important mission. Now more than ever, people across the world are depending on USAGM’s fact-based news to triumph over increasing misinformation, disinformation, and censorship.”
If the FTC finds Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal directly participated in data practices that violated a 2011 consent decree, the agency won’t hesitate to name him in a complaint, FTC Chair Lina Khan told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee during an oversight hearing Tuesday.
Top government speakers promised on Monday the U.S. government is moving forward on a long-awaited national spectrum strategy. But a top DOD official at NTIA’s Spectrum Policy Symposium warned federal users also have strong continuing needs, and clearing 3.1-3.45 GHz, a top candidate band for 5G, would be prohibitively expensive.
Competitive Carriers Association promotes Senior Vice President-Legislative Affairs Tim Donovan to president and CEO, effective Jan. 1, succeeding Steven Berry, retiring at year-end (see 2209140061) … CrowdStrike names Illumio’s Jennifer Johnson chief marketing officer ... Comcast Advertising moves Chief Growth Officer Pooja Midha to executive vice president-general manager, Effectv, Comcast Cable’s advertising sales division, replacing James Rooke, who recently became president, Comcast Advertising ... AI communications company Dialpad recruits RingCentral’s Arnaud Budkiewicz as vice president-engineering ... Lattice Semiconductor adds Raejeanne Skillern, Flex president-communications, enterprise and cloud, also former Intel, to its board.
Josh Stager, from New America’s Open Technology Institute, says he’s joining Free Press as policy director … Former Rep. Michael Ferguson, R-N.J., will lead AT&T’s federal legislative relations team starting Oct. 3, replacing Tim McKone, retiring; Rhonda Johnson shifts to lead federal regulatory relations, replacing Joan Marsh, also retiring (see 2209130071 and 2205110068).
The National Institute of Standards and Technology plans an Oct. 25 open virtual meeting of its Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology, to include discussions on “strategic issues facing the agency,” including an update on implementation of the Chips and Science Act, said a notice for Thursday’s Federal Register. Oct. 18 is the deadline for individuals and representatives of organizations to request a place on the agenda, it said.
About $28 billion of the $50 billion in funding in the Chips and Science Act will go toward incentives “to establish domestic production of leading-edge logic and memory chips that require the most sophisticated manufacturing processes available today,” said the Commerce Department in an “implementation strategy” statement Tuesday. The money “may be available for grants or cooperative agreements, or to subsidize loans or loan guarantees,” it said. The statute’s incentives program will increase domestic production of semiconductors “across a range of nodes,” it said. “This initiative is broad and flexible, encouraging industry participants to craft creative proposals.” Commerce expects to make “dozens” of funding awards, with the total value expected to be near $10 billion, it said. Funding documents, which will provide “specific application guidance” for the program, will be released by early February, said Commerce: “Awards and loans will be made on a rolling basis as soon as applications can be responsibly processed, evaluated and negotiated.” President Joe Biden signed the Chips and Science Act into law Aug. 9 (see 2208090062).
The $54.2 billion Chips and Science Act, signed into law in August (see 2208090062) will be significant for how industry will look down the road, experts said Tuesday during a USTelecom webinar. The act includes $1.5 billion to spur open radio access networks. Experts also said they don’t expect big future moves from the FCC on ORAN, after a 2021 notice of inquiry.