Stopping Huawei from their Infrastructure Grab.

 Dear Mr. Poindexter,

          Thank you for contacting me about S. 1260, the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act of 2021, formerly known as the Endless Frontier Act.

I was pleased to vote in favor of the bill when it passed the Senate on June 8, by a vote of 68-32.

The U.S. Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 serves as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to solidify U.S. leadership in science and tech innovation, strengthen our national security, and reinvigorate American ingenuity.          

I am pleased to see Congress taking bipartisan action to shore up U.S. investment in the research, development, and manufacturing of critical technologies. Without intervention, China will continue to outpace and outperform us in the global technology race impacting our country’s economic well-being, our global influence, and our national security.

As Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, I have long been sounding the alarm about the importance of supply chain security and the threat posed by state-directed 5G providers like Huawei.

That’s why this bill is so important. It includes funding for my bipartisan legislation, the Utilizing Strategic Allied (USA) Telecommunications Act, which fosters U.S. innovation in the race for 5G by providing $1.5 billion to invest in Western-based alternatives to Chinese equipment providers like Huawei and ZTE.

I am pleased that this legislation also invests in domestic semiconductor manufacturing, packaging, and advanced R&D, with a $52 billion investment in the programs included in my legislation, the CHIPS for America Act, which was enacted last year. With the U.S. lead over China in semiconductor manufacturing shrinking each year, a significant investment like this is long overdue.

 This unprecedented investment in advanced manufacturing, critical technologies, and research and development is a major step in solidifying American science and technology leadership.

I hope you will contact me in the future about issues that are important to you, and please be assured that I will continue to work with my colleagues across the aisle to support US innovation and competitiveness. 

Sincerely,

MARK R. WARNER

United States Senator

A Right to Free Speech

Who has the right to free speech in the democracies of the world? Does a paid troll on the Internet have a right to repeat the position of government censors as their own?  Does it have the right to criticize others for their opinions?  Do they have a right to pretend to be someone they are not, and publish the same ideas for multiple pseudonyms using free speech as the justification?   They do not.  

Ten percent of the users of social media are bots.  We know because social media companies have to report them to the SEC.  I know that is hard to believe, but that is what research shows.  Bots have no idea what free speech is all about, nor what rights any of us have.  Neither do trolls paid for by China and Russia, yet social media companies treat them as if they have that right.  

Computer Systems Fail to be Secure

 “There is little question that contemporary commercially available systems do not provide an adequate defense against malicious threat.  Most of these systems are known to have serious design and implementation flaws that can be exploited by individuals with programming access to the system….  The security threat is the demonstrated inability of most contemporary computer systems to provide a sufficiently strong technical defense against a malicious user who is deliberately attempting to penetrate the system for hostile purposes.”  Computer Security Technology Planning Study,  James P. Anderson October 1972

Any wonder our networks are worse than our computer systems used to be.  We have many to blame for this but start with the service providers and work out.  These networks have yet to stop telephone and email scammers and even Congress cannot mandate it, though they try.