Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

28. Federal Communications Commission · Minor

Create a regular process for reviewing entities tied to the CCP

Partially done

851 28. Federal Communications Commission

“Therefore, a new Administration should create a more regular and timely process for reviewing entities with ties to the CCP’s surveillance state.”

What has happened

  1. Partially done

    A second, more machine-like process is now visible on the Commission's own Covered List page, and it is closer to "regular and timely" than the Council's investigations were. Each new category added to the Covered List carries a published National Security Determination and a published Guidance Document telling entities how to apply for Conditional Approval (routers 2026-03-20; UAS 2026-01-07; power inverters and advanced robotic devices both 2026-07-28), and the Bureau then announces approvals by dated Public Notice on a rolling basis — at least fifteen separate announcement notices between 2026-03-18 and 2026-08-21, producing eighteen UAS approvals and about twenty router approvals in five months, each with its own date and, for the routers, an expiry. That is a documented, repeating, published review cycle, which is what the Quote asks for. It stays `partial` rather than moving to `done` because what it reviews is applications for exemption from vendors who come forward, not entities with ties to the CCP's surveillance state on the Commission's own initiative; the initiating step is still an Executive Branch interagency National Security Determination and a chairman's council operating at the chairman's discretion, and no rule requires either to review anything on a schedule.

  2. Partially done

    The Council's first action was a review of exactly the entities the Quote names: the FCC sent Letters of Inquiry and at least one subpoena to all nine Covered List entities — Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, Hikvision, Dahua, China Mobile International USA, China Telecom (Americas), Pacifica Networks/ComNet (USA) and China Unicom (Americas) — to establish the scope of their continuing U.S. operations. A mechanism in place and a review actually run; short of `done` because no rule or schedule makes the review *regular* — it is a chairman's council operating at the chairman's discretion.

  3. Attempted

    Chairman Carr established a Council on National Security inside the FCC, drawing representatives from eight Bureaus and Offices and directed at the threats posed by the PRC and the CCP, with Adam Chan as its first Director. A standing body on paper; nothing had been reviewed yet.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

What this Quote asks, next to #2200’s. Both sit in the same Mandate bullet. #2200 is about the Covered List itself staying current; this one is about the process for reviewing entities. They are leveled separately: the list has been expanded repeatedly (#2200 partial), while the review process amounts to a standing council and its investigations.

Boundary. partial rather than done turns on “regular”. The Council is permanent and has run at least one sweeping review, and Covered List additions have arrived roughly quarterly since December 2025 — but those additions come from Executive Branch interagency National Security Determinations, not from an FCC review cycle, and no rule requires the Council to review anything on a schedule. Flagged for the consistency pass.

Confirmed in a later Commission document. The NPRM in WC Docket No. 26-82 (FCC 26-29, adopted 2026-04-30) records the Council’s establishment at footnote 21 and, in Chairman Carr’s statement, that “the very first action the FCC’s Council on National Security took was to launch an investigation into Covered List entities’ continued operation in the U.S.”: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-26-29A1.pdf.

www.fcc.gov was never a wall (corrected 2026-09-03, read-queue ticket 04). The earlier note recorded 403s to curl and WebFetch on every path. The site opens to the full browser header set — https://www.fcc.gov/supplychain/coveredlist returned 23k characters of prose on 2026-09-03 and is the source of the 2026-08-21 event above. docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/ remains open and carries the news releases cited on the earlier events.

The boundary, restated after that read. The Conditional Approval machinery is the strongest case yet for done, and it is recorded above rather than acted on because of what it reviews. Whoever runs the consistency pass should decide between two readings: (a) a published guidance document per category plus fifteen dated approval notices in five months is the “more regular and timely process” the Quote asks for, which would be done; or (b) the Quote’s object is entities with ties to the CCP’s surveillance state, and this process reviews applicants seeking exemption rather than adversaries seeking listing, which leaves it partial. This item takes (b).

One piece of standing machinery, recorded so it is not mistaken for delivery. The Bureau publishes an annual status of the Covered List — 2022-09-20, 2023-09-20 and 2025-07-23 all appear in the page’s Documents log. That is a recurring publication, but it predates the ask and is a status report on the list rather than a review of entities, so under §3b’s rule on standing machinery it is moved-nearby, not an act of creation.

Action
create
Object
Review process for entities tied to the CCP surveillance state
ID
2201