Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Democrat Senator Mark Warner are taking the fight to China as they continue to fight to ensure the protection of American technology.
Both are members of the Select Committee on Intelligence and, earlier this month, unveiled a new bill that aims to “combat tech-specific threats to national security posed by foreign actors like China and ensure U.S. technological supremacy by improving interagency coordination across the U.S. government.” The way this will be ensured is by having “an Office of Critical Technologies & Security at the White House responsible for coordinating across agencies and developing a long-term, whole-of-government strategy to protect against state-sponsored technology theft and risks to critical supply chains.”
A bipartisan host of cosponsors have already voiced their support for the measure, and a bipartisan host of House members are also pushing their own companion bill.
This week, Senator Rubio thanked his colleagues “for recognizing the importance of this legislation and the continued threat posed by Chinese government’s assault on U.S. intellectual property, U.S. businesses, and our government networks and information with the full backing of the Chinese Communist Party.”
Warner also affirmed that “we need a whole-of-government technology strategy to protect U.S. competitiveness in emerging and dual-use technologies and address the Chinese threat.”
“The United States needs a more coordinated approach to directly counter this critical threat and ensure we better protect U.S. technology, and this important, bipartisan legislation will streamline efforts across the government,” Senator Rubio added.
The Florida Republican Senator has voiced his opposition to tech companies that have ties to China like ZTE on numerous occasions, and the bipartisan bill continues to gain steam.
Rubio assured it is his hope to work with “colleagues and the administration to enact this legislation and guard against these national security threats,” and Warner asserted that he looks forward to working with “the Executive Branch to improve coordination and respond to this threat.”
